On August 1st, I officailly resigned from my position as an English as a Second Language teacher. I am staying home with my girls & LOVING it!! I am still working as an aerobics intructor and personal trainer. I love being able to work my schedule into what works for my girls! Tom & I celebrated 17 years of marriage!! Wow, can't believe we are old enough to be married that long! LOL!
Brandon started 8th grade this year!! He will be 14 in a few weeks! Wow!! I still can't believe how big he is, literally!! He grew 4 inches & gained 23lbs in one year! He is playing football again this year and still loves it! I do believe it's his passion! He's playing quarterback (which he has never done before) and doing quite well at it! One of my FAVORITE things to do, is watch him play ball! I become this very proud momma when I see him succeed in the thing he is most passionate about.... now if only I could get him to be that passionate about homework!! LOL!
Blake started 6th grade this year! I can't believe he is old enough to be in 6th grade, but he is! He is growing up way too fast! Blake is now a red belt in taekwondo. He is well on his way to a black belt! I'm very proud of him for sticking with it and working hard to get this far. Blake has been little for his age most of his life, but he is finally starting to grow! He's almost as tall as me (which if any of you know me, you know that's not saying a whole lot) but we are excited to see him get a little bit of height!
Emmie & Elise started a "Children's Morning Out" program. They are loving Tuesday mornings and so am I!! They get to play with kids their own age, and they are in seperate rooms, so they get a break from each other as well! I get to run errands without hauling to little girls with me! We also made a trip to the zoo last weekend, it was the first time Emmie & Elise had been there, and they both loved it!
Emmie is doing very well. Her health is great! Her blood pressure is NORMAL!! for the first time in her young life! We are thanking God big time for the miraculous healing in her little body. She has a check up at Riley in a week. It will be a big one with cardiology and nephrology (heart & kidney). She will have an echo, which I'm a little nervous about. At some point, I know they are going to tell me her stent is too little for her artery, and they will need to go in and expand the stent. I know its coming in the next year or so, just not ready to go through it again! I could cry thinking about it, so I try not to! Emmie continues to be a typical big sister, she's BOSSY!! LOL! She loves to play with Elise, but she also LOVES to tell Elise NO! We are coninually battling over that. Sometimes I feel like the only thing I said all day to her is "You're not the boss, Mommy is the boss!" Elise is picking up on the bossy thing too. It's cute to see her immitate Emmie. You can't understand most of what Elise says, but you know exactly what she is saying by the head movement, pointing finger and the tone in her voice! LOL!
Elise is doing great!! She had an 18 month check up and she was 22.5 lbs & 29 inches. So, she's gained 3 lbs since we were in China, and she's grown 1/4 of an inch. Poor baby is going to be short! She is in the 5th percentile for height, and the 15th percentile for weight. Her jelly rolls are decieving!! She is still very little for her age! We have noticed over the last few months that her left eye keeps turning in, So, we've been seeing an optimologist. We are patching her strong eye every other day and will probably have a simple lazer surgery in a few months. I'll keep you all posted on the progress of that! Elise continues to babble constantly. Most of what she says is unrecognizable, but she has learned the word "stop" quite well, she even puts her hand up when she says it, and its usually directed at her sister! LOL!
Over all the Brooks family has settled into a new normal!! Really??? Normal??? We went so long without a normal, that it feels weird to even say it! LOL! But we are truely blessed beyond our wildest dreams to have our careers set, our new house bought, and finally have the addition of Elise (whom we waited 5 yrs for!!)
Here are some pictures of August.....
Blake right after he earned his red belt!
Blake on the first day of 6th grade
Brandon after a tough game!
Brandon on the first day of 8th grade
Elise & Emmie at the zoo
Emmie going to school with her backpack!
Emmie & Elise were very interested in the penguins!
Love this pic of Elise watching the fish!
Tom & all the kids at the zoo!
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! It's so good to read that everyone is doing so well. Life is indeed good, and thanks to God, Emmie is continuing to do better and better. Oh, what i wouldn't give to be able to watch Blake again at Tae Kwan Do, or watch Brandon play football! And those two precious girls? Hugs and more hugs! Thank you, Tracy for the using this blog to update us on the details. Keeping up with this and the photo taking must be tough and yet you're doing such a great job. XOXO
ReplyDeleteAww. . .look at your sweet baby girls together at the zoo. So cute! Glad things are going well. Things are feeling more "normal" here too. Whatever normal is. :-)
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