Bunk Bed Giveaway!

Epoch Design stocks their furniture in Costco stores, and the company is giving away a McKenzie Twin bunk bed set from the Redding store!  We've been planning on putting our boys into bunk beds soon anyway, so this would be perfect to have their room set up for years to come.

VISIT THE GIVEAWAY

The drawing happens tomorrow, so wish me luck!

Result of Shutterfly House Party

So, with a promo code for 15 free cards, and 40% off all Christmas cards (through tomorrow), Matthew and I completed our design for our Christmas cards! You can check it out below. We're sending out a small number this year and emailing everybody else, but this way you can all see it.

We took the photos in red clothing on Labor Day. If this is an actual end to a blogging drought, I will post more pics from that and some from Halloween and other activities soon. Don't hold your breath, but right now I'm feeling inspired. We'll see!

The most exciting thing in my life as a mom right now is having Naomi almost perfectly potty trained. I'm sorry if you read this in 10 years and get embarrassed, Sweetie, but it's been a long time coming and I'm thrilled! Naomi and I have also been doing preschool together and that has been really positive for both of us.

Matthew just finished his soccer season as a coach for the city. He already knew three of the kids on his team, and right now is looking forward to doing it again next year.

Eli is still cheery as ever and is climbing up and down stairs, busting through a 7th tooth, starting to cruise, and letting go of things for half a second before falling down. Today at the park he was squealing as I pushed him in the swing - he likes to go almost as high as his big sister!

Other than the above, I've been working on new recipes and new crafts and finishing old crafts. It's been fun and I just wish I had twice as much patience with the kiddos and housekeeping! But I'm getting plenty of opportunities to develop it. :-)

Good night until next time, whenever that might be!

5x7 Folded Card

Gift Wrapped Christmas Card

Turn your favorite photos into personalized Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Eli's Birth Announcement

Mod Marquee Blue Baby Announcements

To see Shutterfly's birth announcement designs, click here.

View the entire collection of cards.

Eli's 1st Week

Here are a few pictures from Eli's first week at home.

Our family of four out for a walk with our fancy (new to us) stroller

Eli hated being naked, like here when he got his first sponge bath.

But mom can make it all better.

Dad and Eli watching the Super Bowl

Squishy face.

Dad and Eli relaxing.

Eli had lots of visitors his first week.

Grandpa Keith holding Naomi and Eli.

Hanging out with Grandma Beth

Auntie Krista got a turn too

Grandma Kathy showing off her newest grandkid.

Grandpa Tim and Eli.

Naomi's Visit

Our friend Merrilee who Naomi is staying with while we're at the hospital made the long drive to Paradise so that Naomi could meet her little brother the evening of his birth. Here are a few pictures.

Eli James Brooks

A few pictures from his first few minutes.

Camping at Lake Tahoe

Auntie Krista shared her tent with Naomi quite a bit. It was nice for Naomi to have a clean place to play.

Pinecones make the best natural toys.

So proud of herself!

We hiked up to the Lily Pond for a picnic lunch.

Matthew got to carry Naomi for our hike. She enjoyed shaking the canopy to add a little more challenge to his walking.
The last night we went out for dinner and stopped by this park/public beach in Tahoe City afterwards.


Naomi really liked grabbing handfuls of dirt and letting them flow down her arms and shirt.
A first S'mores experience - the sticky marshmallow didn't go over very well, though she mentioned the crackers and chocolate as yummy.
I promise we didn't do this to her hair! After getting her head sprayed with mosquito repellent three days in a row and sleeping with a beanie on, this is the result.

After a picnic at D.L. Bliss on our way out of town, we went down to the beach to say hi to the local geese.
During the last days of our vacation we stayed in Roseville. Naomi got this Dora helmet at a garage sale some friends of ours were having. She was excited to have both her new hat and her forggie pajamas on at the same time.

Boggle

Naomi did this for 45 minutes this morning. I got it out because she loves letters and puzzles more than anything right now. And it let me get some work done. She is my mechanically-minded little girl! Where could she possibly have gotten that from??? (Me and Grandpa Keith is the answer.)

Father Abraham

Here's a little video of Naomi doing the motions to "Father Abraham" with her daddy.

Testing the Sprinklers

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with our families in Roseville. We are truly blessed to have both sides of the family in one place so that we can celebrate with everyone every year.

It was Naomi's second Christmas but this time she was actually able to really enjoy some of the Christmas activities. She had lots of fun going Christmas Caroling with our Faith Bible Church family and looking at Christmas lights with the Hallsten's in Roseville. On Christmas morning she opened presents and had fun playing with her new toys. Here is a small sampling from Christmas.

Here's Naomi all bundled up for Christmas Caroling.

Here are a few videos from Christmas morning at the Hallsten home.

Later on Christmas day we went to Matthew's brothers house for food and gift opening for his side of the family. We hope all of you had a blessed time this year celebrating the birth of Jesus with your loved ones.

Go! Go! Go!

Naomi's official first word is Go. She started saying it in late December. At about that same time she also started understanding and responding to much more of what we were saying. Here are a couple of videos that Emily took of Naomi saying her first phrase (go, go, go!).

Since these videos were taken Naomi's communication has continued to explode. She has a number of words now (although her use of them is still somewhat inconsistent). She says "ball", "girl", "daddy", "go get it" and (joy of joys) "T.V.". She also imitates many other words and sounds that we make. She can clearly understand much of what we say and will sometimes respond to simple requests like "let's go upstairs" and "shut the door". Her signing has also improved significantly and she babbles almost constantly. We're going to have real chatterbox on our hands soon.

Future Seamstress?

The other morning Naomi got hold of Emily's Quilter's Measuring Tape and decided it made a great accessory. She played it with it for over an hour and walked all over the house wearing it. Here's a quick video.

Christmas Tree Hunt

On Saturday November 28th some friends of ours from church (Rick and Bobbie Green and Troy and Kimber Caldwell and their son Curtis) took us along for their annual Christmas Tree hunt. They drove us up with them into the Mendocino Forest where for a 10 dollar fee you can cut your own Christmas tree.

Here is a short video of us tromping around in the snow.

We had a lot of fun visiting with our friends on the way experiencing the snow and looking for the perfect tree. We found a beauty. A 9 foot silver tip fir, the biggest by far we've ever had. Naomi had fun too (mostly). Here are a few pictures from our hunt followed by a couple showing what the tree looks like set up in our house.

A family picture by the side of the road before starting the search.

Here we are with our tree, newly discovered, shortly before we cut it.

Matthew and Naomi pose in front of the tree set up in our living room right after we got it home.

Here's the final product. A beautiful tree fully decorated and lit. We've really been enjoying it.