I thought it would be fun to post pictures of Dalayna's first Christmas. I would love to do Colby's, but those are still packed away in boxes until we are in our own home again. Those were the days before we had a digital camera!! This was the night we put ornaments on the tree. I can't believe how much my children have changed and grown in the past 4 years!!

This was Dalayna's smile in 2005. She has finally learned how to smile and keep her eyes open at the same time.

This was our Christmas card for 2005.

Dalayna with her dear big brother and her dear thumb!!

Dalayna's first Brooks family Christmas party in Southern Missouri in Uncle Kenny's arms. I have missed this party 2 years now. My thoughts were with my family today as they gathered again. We have lost 2 precious members of this part of my family in the past year.

Colby and Dalayna in front of the tree on Christmas morning. I have tried to take a picture each year on Christmas morning, except for 2008. Colby was sick last year and we weren't in our own home for the first time ever.

Dalayna with cousin Brad. He could make her smile that day.

This is the year Colby recieved the game "Buckaroo". I think Dalayna enjoyed it as much as he did!!

Scooter Racing

We have found a new form of entertainment in our house. Each night we all, or just the kids, head down to the basement to spend time with our dogs. Last night, I was FINALLY feeling better, thankfully, so I had the idea to race on scooters. My legs would probably be glad to tell you how sore they are today. So, tonight I decided I should do it again to help them. Tonight we added a new twist.... a bicycle. The bicycle was my idea, but I almost ran into a dog, a child, a concrete wall and boxes. You would have thought I needed training wheels. I will just blame it on the anti-biotic I am taking. Ha, Ha!! So, seeing my inability to ride on 2 wheels, Terry kindly took over. Sorry for the bad pictures. My battery is low! Dalayna was racing on her tricycle, but managed to stay out of the pictures.

Colby entertained us all by crashing into the boxes on almost every turn. As you can see he is wearing a helmet and the boxes make a "softwall", which is a NASCAR term:).

This is my "Great Wall". I had to "build" this wall to keep Ranger from getting into trouble. It is almost 2 layers of boxes deep. The cover to the pool is on the other side, as well as the furnace, hot water heater, and water softener. Since Ranger is a busybody, we constructed the wall to keep him out of trouble.

OOPS!! See information below!!

Ranger can't get out of the way of the scooter fast enough!! He did find this Christmas bag good enough to lay down on. He also got hold of some our icicle lights and started chewing light bulb and all. They are now in a safe place far from Ranger's reach. I sometimes think this dog is part goat!!

Poor Remington!! He is probably thinking, "These people have lost their minds!", as we race around the basement on scooters!! See the princess scooter in the background? That is the one I use. It takes work!!

Catching Up

I have been sick, so I am very behind in blogging. Sorry!! In the last blog, I mentioned a sign one of Terry's co-workers hand carved for our family. Here it is. It also has our last name on the bottom, but for privacy purposes I left it out of the picture. I would love to hang it somewhere, but it may have to wait until we are in a home of our own again.

We went back to our actual house a week and a half ago to prepare for an open house. We have had several people look at it, but no offers, so please continue to keep that in your prayers. It was good to be back and see our church family and neighbors. Our friends Ron and Angela were kind enough to let us hang out at their house and we had a wonderful time. This is one of their horses.

Here are the chickens. They were having fun scratching in the dirt. Dalayna has been able to help gather eggs 2X now.

Fixing the barn roof.

Caitlyn decided she wanted to be buried in the sand, so Dalayna is working hard to do that. Ron and Angela had new sand poured beside the barn for the horses, but no animals had been here yet, so it was safe for the kids to play in.

There is always much running around playing different games when we go to Ron and Angela's house. They have 5 acres, so there is plenty of room to run. I am not sure if Colby is surrendering here or what!!

This picture is what I call a "redneck tractor pull". Terry and Ron were pulling the tractor to the front of the property to work on it. They fixed it!!

This cornfield is right behind Ron and Angela's property. It was neat to watch this combine going through the field. Can you tell I am a city girl?

Many people may not know that we enjoy bird-watching at our house. We always have. There are lots of birds here and we are very happy about it. Here is one of our black-capped chicadees. They are very tame. This one was quite the piggy on Saturday and emptied the entire bird feeder picking out the pieces he wanted. We also have blue jays, which I mentioned in another blog, cardinals, titmouse, juncos, woodpeckers, and today we saw a huge hawk.

We received permission from the owners to burn wood in the fireplace, so Terry decided to get busy chopping wood. Dalayna was a good helper carrying the wood to the "cubby hole" as she calls it. Colby was at a youth event helping to rake leaves at someone's property.

After we received permission to burn wood, Terry began examining the fireplace and he found a kettle inside. I thought that was so neat. One of my favorite children's books is "Ox-Cart Man." In the book, the man purchases a new kettle for his wife for the fireplace. Of course it is much bigger than this one. Dalayna and I read that book the day before we found this, so she was able to see up close what it might look like!!

Here is a look at the fireplace itself. It is so big!! I look forward to sitting beside it for warmth during the lake-effect snows!!

The First Week of the Next Chapter

The title of this post says it all. We have again started another chapter in the life of our family. I am not big on starting new chapters, but God must be giving them to me for some reason. So, this week as I have taken part in this next chapter, despite my fears, my sometimes tears, He has given me blessings to be thankful for: My neighbor across the street, who lives in a beautiful home, came over to welcome us to the neighborhood. She brought red velvet cupcakes and dog treats for Reminton and Ranger. She made sure I had her # in case I needed anything. We visited a church 2X and on the Sunday visit, a family took us to lunch and paid for it. We enjoyed their company and they homeschool too!! We had one of Terry's co-workers over for dinner and they brought us a beautiful sign with the local lighthouse on it, carved personally by the husband. I will post a picture of it later. On Sunday, the president of the company and his wife dropped by. They brought a beautiful cake, but we were just thankful they came by to visit. Another one of Terry's co-workers left apple cider,a bag of apples and a bag of candy for the kids. I was so worried about being alone, yet God has graciously filled our lives in the last week with the kindness and thoughtfulness of others. I believe with all my heart these things can only come from a God who knows your very thoughts, hopes and fears and seeks to put them to rest. The pictures below were a day of exploring the area. We started out with breakfast at the beach, then a walk to the lighthouse. It was extremely windy as you can tell from the hair in my face. We can't wait for next summer when we can hit the beach for swimming!!

The local lighthouse. I was bit scared to walk out to it, especially with the winds that were blowing, but the concrete walkway is actually quite large. We were however, very protective of Dalayna and made her walk on the inside.

We decided to take the kids to Bass Pro. This is an ice shanty for ice fishing. I had never seen one before in person.

They already have the Christmas decorations up at Bass Pro, so I thought it would be fun to take the kids picture in front of them, though the short-sleeved shirt on Colby just doesn't seem to fit with the Christmas decor does it? It was a beautiful day.

Just a fun picture of Colby on the deck. Although we have missed having neighbors, my kids and dogs are having a lot of fun just running around everywhere, especially with the dogs. There are lots of birds and chipmunks just outside the kitchen window. At lunch the other day, the bluejays and chipmunks were harassing one another and Colby was giving me the play by play action.

We had the pleasure of meeting the owners of this house the Friday we were moving in. They are such kind people. The wife told me that this house was a happy house when they lived here. We told her we are a happy family, that is the name of our blog and that we would continue to make happy memories in their home. She said they have had weddings, showers and parties in this home. We know it is big enough to do so!! They actually designed this home themselves and then found a piece of ground and had it built. She told me about the deer that live around here, too. One night her son came home around 1 AM and there were 13 deer in the driveway. Another time, she came downstairs for breakfast and turned on the lights. When she did she was face to face with a deer just outside the kitchen window and they startled one another!! It was fun to listen to her tell the stories and I did get her permission to put all this on the blog.

Finally, Dalayna has lost her first tooth!! One of her cousins began losing her teeth and I came to the conclusion that since they are 3 months apart, Dalayna wouldn't be too far behind. It is fun for her, sad for me because it means my baby is growing up!! She received a dollar under her pillow. It was such a tiny tooth and sharp as can be, so we were telling her they were like shark teeth!!