We went from "Joy to the World"...to "Bah Humbug!" in a matter of hours.

Our poor baby is sick.

He's been throwing up (the first night), fevering and other symptoms (you don't want to know about) since Saturday night. Today we will go to the doctor to evaluate and figure out what type of bug is eating his insides. Poor kid.

We are praying God will take away his bug and give it to his Mama or Daddy.

Bless his little sick soul.

We had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas. It might have been my favorite Christmas so far. We decided to do the "no presents for the adults" thing and it rocked. Instead, we were able to love each other up, spend time chatting, skating, sledding, praising the Lord, praying and watching the kids open presents. It added so much to our Christmas to have the no present rule. I would highly recommend it.

We got to serve at the Union Gospel Mission earlier in the week and enjoyed serving those who are seldom served. What a blessing to us. We went from there directly to Bentlyville which was amazing. The weather was perfect and the cookies and hot chocolate were Brooks' favorites.

We adopted two Super Hero kids this Christmas, too. We have never (to date) seen Chloe and Brooks behave in such rock star fashion. They were happy, obedient and full of love the entire weekend. They were so well behaved I actually am considering adding another baby to our family this year...NOT. Maybe a baby guinea pig for Brooks, but that's about it. Sorry, folks.

Little Chloe-Belle has come into her own. She is beautiful, fun and loving. She took very good care of her new baby doll, but mostly enjoyed the eating a sucker and sitting on her Daddy's lap the entire evening.

We got to go sledding and skating on Christmas Day and had a blast. Chloe loves to run around the ice, Brooks loves to skate and Mommy and Daddy enjoyed doting on our children. They most likely had the two best days of their lives. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were amazing.

Brooks loved his hockey gear. He was very precious when he opened his hockey mask from his cousins. While screaming with joy, he asked, "How did they know I love hockey?" Oh, sweet Brooks..they must have just known.

We are just so blessed. Blessed to have family, blessed to have beautiful children and blessed that we have a Lord who died on the cross, has forgiven our sins and gave us the best gift of all: Eternal Life.

Thank you Lord for it all.

Have you ever had moments with the camera where you are not even trying for a good picture and you get the best picture ever? That happened the other day for Greg. We couldn't get these two to look at us, have clean faces and smile at the same time again if we tried! I love when small things like this work out.

Fast forward to the next day when you put your baby girl, who isn't a baby anymore, in piggies on the top of her head. She's sweet, cute and looks just like her Mommy did when she was little. You grab the camera to take a picture of this sweet little girl and this is what you get no matter how hard you try.

But then there are the times when the girl has pure joy filling her body and she can't take a bad picture even with pizza all over her face.

Sometimes we just have to flash a good one even when Chloe is completely "Sweet November" with her pink boots, polka-dot tights, red skirt, pink heart jacket and sippy cup. We try so hard to coordinate her outfits, but sometimes when she's mismatched she is the most beautiful.

Before I forget...Did I ever tell "all" my readers how beautiful my little girl is and how handsome her daddy is? If not, you can see for yourself right here.

Enjoy!

If he's going to be a Bulldog he needs to learn to skate. He's doing "really good"... the worst in his class but in his defense the class is filled with 4, 5, 6 and 7 year olds.

The teacher didn't know he was 3 until after the first lesson. When she was told you could see a light bulb go off in her head...

No wonder he can't seem to catch on like the other kids.

Brooks loves is and told me, "When I fall, I just get up and try again. Just like Calliou!"

Yes, sweetie. Just like Calliou.

Here's the most random blog I've written. Bear with me.

Brooks likes to wear his hockey helmet while watching hockey on television, while watching Mighty Ducks on his I pod, while playing hockey with his indoor hockey net. So there you have it. Did you catch that? Picture it. It is sweet.

Brooks likes to do crafts with his cousins. Here is the "winter craft" we worked on last week. Today he was asking his TiTi if she'd come over and do a craft with him. She said she wasn't sure she'd be able to. Through tears and whining he says to TiTi, "I have never done a craft before. PLEASE?" Maybe I should show him this picture of the craft he's "never" done.

Oh, and Chloe's stinking cute. Like so cute it's hard to get upset when she cries every time she doesn't get her way or when she lays on the floor at skating lessons today because I wouldn't let her hold the Tupperware full of food she kept flinging all over the place. I guess she knows what she wants. I wonder where she got her determination from. I think I know, but I'll let you decide.

On a final note, I am convinced that I have the best husband in the world. I could list all the things he does that are just not normal for a husband to do, but you'd think I was lying. This man is amazing and I am sure that I love him even MORE TODAY than our wedding day. If that is even possible.

So there you have it. A random post about things I wanted to tell you. As I look at this picture from our wedding day (5 years ago in January), I can see that I need Botox in my forehead...bad! I can't believe how many wrinkles I have now compared to 5 years ago. Yikes. I guess that's what two babies and very little sleep will do to a person.

Goodnight.

While Brooks is away...Chloe will play! She loves that she got to play with ALL the Zhu-Zhu pets while Brother was at his Oma and Opa's house. It was adorable watching her "guard" them with her life, just in case her Brother came home.

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours!

Gobble, Gobble.

Sharing tender moments with Brooks is the best. It's hard to get him to hold still these days and he prefers to play hockey rather than cuddle.

When Brooks decides to hold still in my arms my world stands still. He's all that matters and I remember how blessed I am to have a baby (not so baby anymore) boy.

Our baby girl isn't really a baby anymore. Sad. Not sad enough to have another one, though! Well, we would have another one IF Greg could be the one to be pregnant. Might be selfish but let's get real here...being pregnant is my least favorite thing EVER! God gave us two great end results though, so I'll stop complaining right now.

Chloe helped her Daddy shovel last week. What a sweetie. We contemplated letting her wear Brooks' old snowsuit this winter, but now that I see the pink I am glad we changed our minds. Blue and black just wouldn't have been right.

Chloe is in a phase right now that is less than desirable at times. She doesn't enjoy anyone other than her Mommy and Daddy touching her, holding her, picking her up or even saying "hi" to her. It makes for frustrating times, but also melts our hearts when she charges full speed ahead into our arms because she ONLY wants us. We do look forward to this time passing, though.

This picture looks JUST LIKE ME when I was little. It must be the piggies or maybe it's the cottage cheese all over her face. Whatever it is, it is amazing how much she looks like her Mommy. Now I don't think I can say how cute she is because that might sound bad, but I can't resist. She is SO CUTE! I L..O..V..E...having a girl. It's so fun.

Brooks had a HUGE surprise at the last UMD hockey game. His Opa set up a special experience and found a way for him to ride ON THE ZAMBONI! We didn't tell Brooks until right before because we knew the excitement would end up ruining the rest of the game for him.

When we told him (right before he got to ride), his face lit up like we've never seen before, his entire body shook and he squealed with enthusiasm. It was so precious. He grabbed Opa's hand and couldn't get to ice level quick enough.

Brooks loves his Opa and we think the feeling is mutual.

Brooks got the crowd going. He started by waving with one hand, then he started to wave with two hands, then he decided it would be a great idea to blow the crowd kisses. We could hear some of the UMD band members saying, "Look at that little boy! Oh, did you see that? He's so cute." He was so sweet up there on that huge machine.

Since the game he has worn his UMD jersey every day and every night. He wears pajama pants to bed and pairs them with his UMD jersey. When he wakes up, he takes off his jersey for a bath, but it is back on before he starts his day.

He announced to us last night, "I want to wear this jersey every day."

Really Brooks? We hadn't noticed!

To be perfectly honest we don't really want to be hockey parents. We don't enjoy being cold (unless we are skiing) and have LOTS of other stuff we'd enjoy filling our weekends with. We want to give Brooks freedom to decide who he is and what he wants to do, but we might steer him towards basketball or running when he gets older.

Although, as we thought about that we realized that a little boy might not be as excited to have his Daddy say to him, "Guess what? We bought you a brand new pair of running shoes!"

Oh, well...We still have lots of time.

Tonight Ti-Ti brought over some clearance Halloween costumes for Brooks. She bought him a SuperHero costume and a Spiderman costume. She accidentally got the wrong size Spiderman costume, which was a blessing in disguise. As Brooks got changed into his SuperHero (I think the guy is from the Incredibles) costume, Chloe waddled over to her Ti-Ti and started to tug on her shirt. She didn't want to be left out. She wanted desperately to have Ti-Ti get her dressed into a costume as well.

It worked out just perfect that Ti-Ti brought the wrong size for Brooks because I then got to experience Chloe is her cutest moments to date. Check this out. She could win a contest. Spiderman with Pink Pearls.

It may not be Halloween anymore, but we love that "Buzz" still makes his daily appearance. Based on the last three days, we may have to pry these wings off of our little man. I don't think they will allow him to be "Buzz" at school tomorrow, so we better start convincing him now that going to school as "Brooks" is a good idea.

Chloe's sweet cheeks and bright blue eyes made her the most perfect owl we've ever laid eyes on. She stole the show with her little striped legs sticking out of her precious costume.

Hopefully tonight goes okay for Chloe because tonight for dinner she ate:

2 Hotdogs
1 Bag of SunChips
1 Peanut Butter Cup
Apple Juice

Well, we won't win any prizes for feeding our kids the healthiest diet, but we WILL WIN the prize for the two cutest kids on this planet. Just saying...

Meet Buzz. Don't worry, though. It's "really, me Brooks" under it all! Brooks loved today and loved dressing like his favorite character. He was so cute saying, "To INFINITY and BEYOND" to some and "TRICK OR TREAT" to others.

It would take another whole post to tell you about some major changes at our house this week, but let's just say that the changes are working.

Brooks has become a boy filled with love, obedience and even some peaceful moments. It is amazing and Greg and I are thankful. We are thankful for our awesome Sunday School class on parenting and our wonderful support system.

Greg said to me tonight, "I can't think of one time that I was upset with Brooks all day."

What a perfect Halloween, just perfect.