Curious Brooke

This is Brooke.
She lives in Alpharetta.
She is a good little toddler
and always very curious...



...especially about Curious George!

Brooke loves this mischievous little monkey!

Brooke received The Complete Works of Curious George as a birthday present from Gran last Saturday. Since then, George has become an important part of our day. We read several stories a day -- each over 50 pages long! I estimate that we have read around eight hundred pages of Curious George this week!!! It's a good thing that they're such good stories (I loved them when I was little) and that there are seven of them for rotation! There are also several stories within each story. So far, she hasn't figured out that I take reader's license and edit them at times.

The highlight of this week was our trip to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History with our good friends and neighbors, Garrett, Zoe, and Ms. Karen. Brooke was well-prepared for the trip, because George went to the museum, too, and she knew all about his adventures there. To Brooke's great delight, George pulled down a tree on the dinosaur exhibit. When I told her that we were going to the museum to see dinosaurs, her eyes got really big and she asked "Tree?!?!"

Resulting from our visit, she has a new vocabulary word: "bones." It took me a couple of days to figure it out. Unlike George's dinosaurs, most of the ones we saw didn't have skin.

She and Garrett were pretty impressed.



Here, they're looking at a dinosaur statue outside.



Zoe was just happy to be pushed in the stroller and have interesting things to see. She was a very good sport and shared with Brooke beautifully.



(By the way, this cutie was is the inspiration for naming Brooke's doll "Baby Zoe." The real Zoe was a lot littler back then!)

We all had a very fun day at the museum. Brooke is still talking about the bones. I'm just glad that she was much better behaved than George that day!

Prehistoric Shark

This is pretty wild!

A rare frilled shark was filmed off of the coast of Japan this week. This species usually lives between 2,000-3,000 feet underwater and is referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

Click here if you want to see the article. Don't miss the video either - look for Brooke swimming alongside towards the end...

Christmas Portraits

Apparently establishing a new holiday tradition, Mom spirited Brooke away to the portrait studio again this Christmas. She even made the Rudolph dress. The other outfit was a Christmas gift from Mama and Papa Ford. Thanks, Mom, Grandmother, and Granddaddy!

Brooke became obsessed with Rudolph after that dress appeared and would continually point to her nose for me to play it on my iPod. Fortunately, I have three different versions. They all quickly went to the top of the 10 most played songs playlist.

(And just in case you didn't know, you can click on any of the pictures in our blog to see the larger version!)

Birthday Girl

Brooke's birthday party was on Saturday, and wow, was it fun! The house was filled with friends and family. Brooke actually understood that we were having a party for her and got so excited about everything. It helped that we'd been to her friends' Garrett and Grace's birthday parties recently. She was so proud of her party dress and was such a pretty, sweet little lady.

We had quite a household: 11 adults, 2 kids, 4 toddlers, and 2 babies. The guests arrived, the little ones played and then the kids enjoyed the finest of toddler cuisine: hot dogs, grapes, and cheese (all in small pieces, of course!). She had fun playing with her birthday balloon and waited eagerly to greet the guests.

Garrett and Marian dined together and Brooke and Grace were at a table.

Brooke especially enjoyed helping herself to Grace's plate when she wasn't looking.

Brad grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for the rest of us. The crowning glory was the birthday cake. My good friend and neighbor Karen (Garrett and Zoe's mom) did a fantastic job decorating the birthday cake. Thanks, Kare! Didn't it look great? (It's all gone now, of course.)

As you can see, Brooke loved it!

It was a great day. Brooke is thoroughly enjoying all of the new toys and we talk a lot about her party. We were pleased that she said thank you for her presents and gave hugs -- except to Uncle Dave because his whiskers tickle! She took a long nap yesterday and finished the day with one of her favorite activities: a bath with the BathMaster (a.k.a. Brad). She was even glad to be put in her new, soft jammies from Mama and Papa Ford afterward! Night night, sweetie!

God Works in Mysterious Ways

We all claim that God works in mysterious ways, but we all probably have trouble really believing it when we are in the midst of crisis. The following is a story from a member of the Peachtree Miata Club. This is first-person reporting - not e-mail spam.

All of the regulars at the 2006 Camp Miata, heard that I was laid off from my job in October when the company I worked for was bought by a competitor. Friday the 13th of October as a matter of fact. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of a classic bad news comes in 3's scenario. Since being laid off in October, my mother passed away in November and my grandmother passed away in December.

Okay, now for the God knew what he was doing even if I didn't... When I was laid off, I left with a pretty good wad of cash. I had a generous severance package as well as the proceeds from the sale of the stock that I owned in the old company. So, Beth and I have lived comfortably for the last 3 months with no concerns about mortgage payments, car payments, etc. Enough so that Beth and I stayed with our plan to go to the big island of Hawaii for our anniversary and a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas.

What 3 months off did allow me to do was spend time with my mom and grandmother in the their last days but also spend time with my sister supporting her in our time of loss. My mom lived with my sister as she has battled cancer for the last three years. So, we had lots of things to sort through, paperwork to do, etc. We helped convert my mom's room back into a regular guest room at my sister's house.

Now for the punchline...At the end of the whole ordeal, I received a call from the new company and they asked if I would be interested in coming back. As of this Tuesday, I have been re-instated to my original seniority date.

So, Beth and I are praising God for His control over our lives. He knows WAY better than we do what we need, even before we need it.

Beth and I are also looking forward to getting plugged back into the club in the new year. 2006 is behind us and 2007 is looking bright.

Love to all of you,
Robert and Beth

Brooke is TWO!!!

Happy birthday, Brooke! Our sweet little "baby" turned two today. We had a wonderful day with all three of us home together. Brooke may not grasp the concept of being a year older, but she certainly "gets" singing, cake, and -- thanks to Christmas -- PRESENTS!

She and I baked birthday cupcakes this morning. She helped me put the paper liners in the muffin tins and put stars on them after they'd been frosted. She happily sat in a chair watching me put everything together. She did get a little impatient waiting for me to frost them before she could add the stars.




We opened presents this afternoon and she has lots of new toys to play with: Curious George in a little house, a great alphabet Noah's ark with a 26 pairs of little stuffed animals, lots of baby doll accessories, more farm pieces for her Fisher-Price farm, a book with a built-in Elmo puppet, and (maybe best of all), a new stuffed Yorkie in a sassy pet carrier, complete with accessories. Thanks for all of the great presents, everyone! She really likes them. Her party will be next Saturday morning. (Good thing we just cleared a lot of the toys she was starting to outgrow out of the playroom. I think that will become an annual Christmas/New Year's tradition.)

What a difference a year makes!

January 12, 2005





January 12, 2006





January 12, 2007

On the road again

I'm sorry that it's been a few weeks since we posted an article. I think I've been avoiding it because of needing to post the sad news of Mother Dot (my grandmother) passing away. Even though almost everyone who checks this knows that, it has still been hard for me to sit down and write the words. I've been the classic procrastinator, putting off the unpleasant. I may write more on it later.






We had a wonderful Christmas morning at home. Here we are walking down the stairs on Christmas morning.














Brooke got a kitchen, a Mr. Potato Head family, and some great new books. She LOVES talking on the phone, cooking, and setting the table with her new pots, pans, dishes, and food.





















We also had a great afternoon at Brad's grandparents' home. Brooke has really taken to Granddaddy Ford and loves to sit in his lap.














We've been exhausted since Christmas. We learned of Mother Dot's death the first morning after arriving in Lexington. It was nice to be around everyone at the time, but we hadn't packed for a funeral and so had to spend a lot of time running around to a new suit for Brad, clothes for me, and shoes for both of us. Then we made the trip to Western Kentucky for the funeral and came back home to Atlanta on New Year's Eve. For the first time, we didn't stay up to welcome in the New Year after all of that.

We were very grateful for the holiday on Monday and spent the time undecorating from Christmas. We were far more festive than usual this year, so it took a lot longer! I have been very grateful for my trusty new vacuum cleaner to help with all of the mess. (Thanks, Santa!!!)


This past weekend was spent in Houston attending a wedding for Brad's friend, Troy, who had been a groomsman in our wedding. It was a very nice trip. We were glad to see old friends from Brad's single days, Aunt Beth, Uncle Ben, and Timothy, as well as my dear friend Kelly from the Bible Study I used to lead at UK.



We'll be blessed to get some of Mother Dot's furniture, which means more upcoming time on the road -- this time in a 22' rented truck! We'll be delivering things to my Uncle Joe in Nashville on the way home. We're very grateful that Scott will help us with the move... and that Nancy will help us by staying behind and keeping Brooke!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Whew...

We are still here. It's been a busy few weeks - Christmas in Atlanta, Christmas in Kentucky, Mother Dot's funeral and Troy's wedding in Houston. We will be catching up, but here is a pic to pacify you until we do... :)