October 2006 As predicted, we've spent most of this month either at the football field or the soccer field. But it has been a fun month. Both sports ended at the end of October and the boys are both looking forward to a slow month of November before basketball begins in December. Max liked football OK, but definitely enjoyed the last 2 games in which he played a lot. He's not sure yet what he will choose to do next fall--soccer or football. But we've told him he's got plenty of time to think about it. And Nicholaus again did well in soccer. In one game, he scored all but 1 goal that was made. Unfortunately his team was beat in the first round of the tournament. But it was still a great season. Being October, we made our trek to the Pumpkin Farm, carved pumpkins, and of course bought Halloween costumes. Halloween was fun even though Max was sick with strep throat. Candy fixes all things! =) And of course October also brings THE STATE FAIR!!! This was our year to go (we only go every other year) and we had a blast, spent way too much money, ate way too much food, and walked way too much. But it was a blast! We also met with both teachers this month who had nothing but positive things to say about them academically. And socially they are doing well, but Nicholaus has had a bad case of the "sillies" at school in the recent month. But thanks to some threats of consequences, he has been able to cure his sillies without parental involvement. =) Overall it's been a fun month with beautiful weather and lots of fun family times. Here are a few photos. There are also some new ones in the Family Photos Section. |
Left: Nicholaus playing in a creek in the mountains during the July 4th holiday. Right: The boys enjoyed helping us prime Max's room. And Byron only cried for a little while when we had to primer coat the tree he painted for the boys prior to the adoption. |
June 2006 What a great month! Max started June off being a cricket in his school play, "Going Buggy". He was very very cute! Also the first weekend in June, Max was baptized. The morning of his baptism, Mom, Dad, and Max had a special breakfast (Nicholaus was with Penney's folks). Max had a great day. We are so proud of him. Then there was field day at school--always a fun time. We also received word that Nicholaus passed his End of Grade tests. He also completed a biography project on Anne Frank. He did a very good job on it. We are very proud of him! The last day of school, the boys both took Ukrainian Honey cookies in to share with their classes. Also on the last day of school, our friends from Minnesota came in to town along with some friends from Atlanta. We had a total blast and enjoyed every minute of our visit. We all miss them already!! During the weekend our friends were here, we also hosted the 3rd annual NC-Ukraine Adoption reunion. We had fun visiting with about 15 families. We always enjoy that time. The following week, the boys stayed with their Pops and Granny (Penney's folks) and spent some time at the beach. According to Nicholaus, Pops taught him how to look at the "hot babes" on the beach. As if he needed any help doing that.....And yes......Penney has already reminded him how inappropriate referring to women as babes is...... The month of June closed out with Nicholaus attending an Art Camp and Max attending football camp. Nicholaus loved art camp and is already begging to take more classes. And saying Max loved football camp would be a massive misunderstatement. He hasn't stopped talking about it yet. He learned how to tackle and how to run faster. I even caught him scoring a touchdown in a scrimage game when I arrived to pick him up from camp. He can hardly wait for football season to start. The boys are now geared up to go back to school following a week with Byron's parents in the mountains. Max doesn't know it yet, but he will be returning from the mountains to a "new" room. Shhhh...it's a secret. Here are a few photo highlights from June. There are also some new photos in the Family section. |
Nicholaus and Max's Page January 2006 to December 2006 |
March 2006 As March comes to a close, we are happy to report that our lives are a LITTLE bit calmer. The boys finished up basketball season. Soccer season is still in full swing. Thankfully their first soccer game was not against each other as it was last season. This year, it is the last game of the season. =) Nicholaus also had his 10th birthday this month. This year, we are opting for small family individual birthday celebrations and then in April, we are doing a combined party for both of them. For his birthday, Nicholaus was happy to get roller blades, a karaoke machine, a world record book and some knittiing supplies. He says it was his best birthday ever! March also marks year 3 that we have been a family. It is hard to believe!! We don't officially celebrate until April 18 as that is the day they became our permanently--after the 30 day wait. We are also thrilled to report that this month, Max accepted Christ and will be baptized very soon. We are so proud of him! Nicholaus has had some attitude issues this month and therefore has spent quite a bit of time grounded to his room. At this writing, things seem back to normal. And Max, is his usual blonde self. Bless his little heart! =) They really are great kids. OK. Enough writing. Here are some photos from the month: |
Max freezing during a soccer game. |
Our family cheering the boys on during their soccer games. Yes, we were freezing! |
February 2006 Chaos is the word for this month. We are bouncing back and forth between soccer and basketball practices and games. Whose idea was it to let them do sports that overlapped???? But it is going OK. Nicholaus is fantastic at rebounding in basketball and his endurance at all the running is very good. And Max....well, he makes just about every shot he puts up.. He's taken to trying to master the one-handed shot. They practice just about every afternoon. They just have to remember during the games that they can't be as agressive as they are at home with their brother! The boys are doing well in school. Max is reading up a storm and Nicholaus is busy learning his multiplication facts and is just starting to learn to write in cursive. We are trying to figure out our summer plans. Our district is being made a year-round school, so the boys only have about a month out for summer. And we have friends visiting from out of town and we're trying to fit in a soccer camp. And Max has now decided to play football in the fall. Penney is very upset about this and Byron keeps telling her to get over it. And of course the option of playing flag-football is not even an item of discussion. So I guess we are looking for a football camp, too! Nicholaus has taken up knitting this month. Penney's Mom taught him how and he is about 1/2 way done with a blanket for his room. Now it's time to enjoy some photos from February: |
Max enjoying his Valentine's Day gift from us---a jacket with a built-in readio. |
Nicholaus during a baskeetball game. |
January 2006 Happy New Year!!! We brought in the new year by roller skating with friends following dinner out. We had a great time. January has been a busy but good month. Both boys started basketball at our church Upward program. They both love their teams and their coaches. They are both doing really well. I'm not sure they enjoy it as much as soccer. But they are both very good. They also enjoy us playing basketball at home with them in the afternoons. Although Byron needs some lessons. =) I always get "stuck" with him on my team. School is going fine. We are finally back in our grove after the holidays. The boys both are able to get most of their homework done without my help. Only the occasional questions and need for help. Byron's new job is going great. He really enjoys it. And Penney has been asked to coordinate Vacation Bible School at our church again. She and a friend have agreed to do it together as co-directors. That should make things a little easier. So 2006 is off to a great but busy start. We have no anticipation that the rest of the year will be any different. Here are a couple of photos from January. Enjoy! |
Nicholaus snoozing during the SuperBowl. |
Max snoozing on his Pops (Penney's Dad) during one of their visits. |
Max and Byron goofing off at a basketball game |
Nicholaus and Max's Page January 2006 to December 2006 |
Nicholaus in Action! |
April 2006 What month it is?? April? Where has the time gone? April probably goes down as one of the busier months in recent history. It has been filled with soccer games, school projects, birthday parties, vacations, and holidays. But it has been a good month. We started April off at the beach. What's not to love about a couple of days at the beach? The weather was perfect and we were able to eat at all of our favorite beach restaurants. Then there was Easter. The Easter Bunny was again generous with the candy this year. And then we had the boys' combined ice-skating party. It was crazy. But they had a good time, and that's what matters right? After their party, they decided that next year they will ask people to not bring them gifts, but to buy a soccer ball, football, or some other type toy to send to Ukraine. How generous are our boys? We are so proud of their giving spirit. Speaking of Ukraine, we also had our 3rd Family Day. We celebrated with a backwards dinner. For those that don't know what a backwards dinner is, I'll explain. Everyone wears their clothes backwards to the dinner table. The table is set backwards and no one sits in their "usual" seat. And the meal is served backwards--meaning we have dessert first. Oh, and Max's favorite part, you have to eat with your non-dominant hand. They LOVE backwards dinners! And if all of this isn't enough to make you tired, we've also been at the soccer field for games every Saturday. The last game, they played each other. Nicholaus' team was victorious, which was Max's team's first loss of the season. The Tournament is the first weekend in May. So we'll see how things shake out. =) As is our kids' normal routine, Max has been having some behavioral challeneges this month and has spent quite a bit of time in his room and missed his first ever soccer game because of wrong choices. At least they never act up at the same time, right? We are trying some new ways of dealing with them when they make bad choices. We'll see how it goes. Now it's everyone's favorite time. Enjoy lots of photos from April. |
May 2006 Another packed month! We kicked the month off with Max's 9th birthday. He had a wonderful family birthday party at home. He loved his new roller blades and slushie maker. I can't believe my baby is 9. School is winding down and Nicholaus is gearing up for end of the year tests. He was in his school play in May. The play was Cinderella. And he had a double role. He was the coach driver AND he was a dancer at the ball. He did a wonderful job. Max has a play coming up the first part of June. He's a cricket! =) Penney was sick for the first full week of May thanks to a nasty stomach bug that rendered her incapacitated for a couple of days. Thankfully all was better by Mother's day, which we spent with Byron's family. We had a great day and a great weekend with family! Soccer season ended with Nicholaus' team going to the semi-finals...and giving Max's team their first and only loss of the season. =) It was a great day in the Brooks' house..... We are all excited about June as we not only have the last day of school, but our friends from Minnesota are visiting and we have a NC Ukraine Adoption Reunion. And the boys have a week with their Pops and Granny. Busy times ahead. But for now, enjoy some photos from May. |
Nicholaus and his cousin, Jake fishing. |
June 2006 What a great month! Max started June off being a cricket in his school play, "Going Buggy". He was very very cute! Also the first weekend in June, Max was baptized. The morning of his baptism, Mom, Dad, and Max had a special breakfast (Nicholaus was with Penney's folks). Max had a great day. We are so proud of him. Then there was field day at school--always a fun time. We also received word that Nicholaus passed his End of Grade tests. He also completed a biography project on Anne Frank. He did a very good job on it. We are very proud of him! The last day of school, the boys both took Ukrainian Honey cookies in to share with their classes. Also on the last day of school, our friends from Minnesota came in to town along with some friends from Atlanta. We had a total blast and enjoyed every minute of our visit. We all miss them already!! During the weekend our friends were here, we also hosted the 3rd annual NC-Ukraine Adoption reunion. We had fun visiting with about 15 families. We always enjoy that time. The following week, the boys stayed with their Pops and Granny (Penney's folks) and spent some time at the beach. According to Nicholaus, Pops taught him how to look at the "hot babes" on the beach. As if he needed any help doing that.....And yes......Penney has already reminded him how inappropriate referring to women as babes is...... The month of June closed out with Nicholaus attending an Art Camp and Max attending football camp. Nicholaus loved art camp and is already begging to take more classes. And saying Max loved football camp would be a massive misunderstatement. He hasn't stopped talking about it yet. He learned how to tackle and how to run faster. I even caught him scoring a touchdown in a scrimage game when I arrived to pick him up from camp. He can hardly wait for football season to start. The boys are now geared up to go back to school following a week with Byron's parents in the mountains. Max doesn't know it yet, but he will be returning from the mountains to a "new" room. Shhhh...it's a secret. Here are a few photo highlights from June. There are also some new photos in the Family section. |
Field Day 2006 |
Nicholaus, the artist, in action. |
Max and Dad the morning of Max's baptism. |
The obligatory last day of school photo. |
July 2006 This month has been such a blur. We started July off in the mountains, as is our July 4th family tradition. Byron and Penney's stay was cut short because of some sickness in Penney's family. But the boys stayed and had a blast!! And Penney's Dad is all better now. Max returned from the mountains to a new room. We had begun the transformation before leaving for the mounttains, but he had no idea we would finish it while he was gone. Needless to say he was thrilled with his new room. His room is now officially the "cooler" room. Then the boys started back to school. So far the year round schedule is going OK. It just feels odd to be doing homework in July. But so far the boys enjoy their new school and new teachers. Then came Vacation Bible School. It went very very well, but was an exhaustive week for everyone!! Penney is thinking of just being a consultant next year...... The last weekend in July, the boys squeezed in one more weekend visit with Pops and Granny before soccer and football practice starts. The first weekend in August, they'll squeeze in one more with GranMom and GranDad. Then the craziness really kicks in!! So if you need us between now and Halloween, either look at the soccer or football field! Life is good! Enjoy some photos from July: |
Max's New Room Obviously he wanted a sports theme. The pillows on his bed are some of his previous jerseys. He loves his new room!! |
Left: Nicholaus playing in a creek in the mountains during the July 4th holiday. Right: The boys enjoyed helping us prime Max's room. And Byron only cried for a little while when we had to primer coat the tree he painted for the boys prior to the adoption. |
You guessed it! It's the first day of school photo! |
August 2006 Summer time is in full swing around here. The boys started August out with a visit to Byron's parent's house for Gran-Mom's birthday. They had a blast! Then soccer practice and football practice began and our nights have been consumed with that and homework. But the boys are doing really well in school. They both really like their teachers and their teachers have nothing but positive things to say about them. Max has discovered a book series that he loves--the Secrets of Droon. He LOVES these books. And Nicholaus...he has discovered Judy Blume. He is doing a project on her and one of her books. They are eager to track out in September and spend some time with the grandparents. Max has been quite busy with football. It is a very rigorous training schedule. We aren't sure he loves it, but we think he will like it more once they actually start playing games. But for his first year, he is doing well. And Nicholaus is liking his soccer team so far. It is a smaller team so he will get more playing time this year. Max discovered a new pet, Dexter the preying mantis. He kept him in a jar for a few days. Byron then convinced him how good they were for the environment so they let Dexter go. But Dexter lived on our deck for another couple of days before disappearing. We are sure he is now off eating bugs somewhere in our lawn. Nicholaus has also started to jog this month. He loves to run and is averaging about 5 miles a week. We also made homemade sweet pickles this month. Max was a HUGE help and loved it. Nicholaus...he helped with the stirring. ;) It has been a very busy and hot month. But a great month! Enjoy some photos! |
Clockwise: Top left: Max and Mom washing the cucumbers to make pickles. Top right: My baby in his football gear. *sob* Left: Nicholaus in action at his first soccer game Right: Nicholaus doing his part of making pickles. Stirring. Below; Penney's %$th birthday with her folks. Thanks Granny for the yummy cake! |
September 2006 Oh, how we love fall! The weather so far has been just wonderful. For 3 weeks of September, the boys were tracked out of school. So they were able to spend a week (or most of it) with each set of grandparents and then one week at home with us. It was lots of fun. Here's a quick rundown of our month: A 90th birthday party for the boys' great grandmother (Byron's maternal grandmother), a family reunion for Pops side of the family (Penney''s dad), 3 football games (2 losses, 1 victory), 4 soccer games (3 wins, 1 loss), a day trip to the beach, Penney's sister and newphews' birthday parties, and countless other things. A couple of things we discovered this month: our boys can EAT. They both downed a HUGE hamburger and became honorary members of the big burger club. This meant they get their photo posted in the store with this silly hamburger. The boys also love greek food. Byron brought them to have lunch with me one day and we went to one of our favorite greek places. They loved everything they tried. Even some things Byron doesn't like. And lastly, that the boys love the beach almost as much as I do. I think they would LIVE there if we'd let them. We are now ready to wrap up football and soccer, get decorated for Halloween, pick out costumes and pumpkins, and begin basketball season! Here are just a few photo highlights. |
Above: The boys with the giant hamburger. The one they ate wasn't QUITE this big, but pretty close. And on the right is them in the back of our NEW car. They love it b/c they can sit in the 3rd row and put the 2nd row seats up and make themselves a recliner. Below: Max (left) and Nicholaus (right) at the beach. They had already played for hours and now we were changed and heading to lunch at our favorite restaurant. |
October 2006 As predicted, we've spent most of this month either at the football field or the soccer field. But it has been a fun month. Both sports ended at the end of October and the boys are both looking forward to a slow month of November before basketball begins in December. Max liked football OK, but definitely enjoyed the last 2 games in which he played a lot. He's not sure yet what he will choose to do next fall--soccer or football. But we've told him he's got plenty of time to think about it. And Nicholaus again did well in soccer. In one game, he scored all but 1 goal that was made. Unfortunately his team was beat in the first round of the tournament. But it was still a great season. Being October, we made our trek to the Pumpkin Farm, carved pumpkins, and of course bought Halloween costumes. Halloween was fun even though Max was sick with strep throat. Candy fixes all things! =) And of course October also brings THE STATE FAIR!!! This was our year to go (we only go every other year) and we had a blast, spent way too much money, ate way too much food, and walked way too much. But it was a blast! We also met with both teachers this month who had nothing but positive things to say about them academically. And socially they are doing well, but Nicholaus has had a bad case of the "sillies" at school in the recent month. But thanks to some threats of consequences, he has been able to cure his sillies without parental involvement. =) Overall it's been a fun month with beautiful weather and lots of fun family times. Here are a few photos. There are also some new ones in the Family Photos Section. |
Right: The boys with their pumpkins Below:Max taking a nap on Byron (or is it vice-versa??) after Max's last football game. Below right: Nicholaus at his last soccer game. Bottom left: Mom and the boys sharing a funnel cake at the State Fair. Bottom center: Happy Halloween! |
November 2006 Slow November? What November? Although there were no sports to occupy our time in November, we were still plenty busy with school projects, homework, and home projects. Byron also had a birthday in November, which was fun! And we had a family reunion with Penney's Mom's side of the family. The boys loved it and enjoyed 4-wheeling and all of the food! Also during November we repainted the entire interior of our house, had new carpet put upstairs, and had hard wood flooring done downstairs. So that meant we moved our entire house around over the course of the month. And it was exhausting. But it now looks nice and was finished in time for Thanksgiving, which was at our house. The boys loved having all 4 grandparents at our house for lunch and then Penney's sister and her family for dinner. We then went to see our traditional Thanksgiving movie--The Santa Claus 3. It was an OK movie, but we enjoyed the time with family the most! We are now getting decorated for Christmas and Christmas spirit abounds here. The boys will be enjoying a lot of time with the grandparents this month as they are out of school for all of December! They are excited about that! As are we. ;) Here are just a few photos: |
The boys on the giant swing at the Family reunion. |
Byron, his parents, and the boys on Byron's birthday. Yes, the boys had cIothes on. Just not shirts! |
December 2006 Christmas everywhere! It has been a wonderful month. Full of Christmas spirit and cheer! The boys have had lots of fun this month spending a lot of time with the grandparents. They have done lots of 4-wheeling. horseback riding, projecting, and just generally being spoiled rotten. And they have loved every minute of it! Nicholaus had a nasty cold this month and Max had a brief stomach bug. But otherwise, they have been great. We've made cookies for Santa, gingerbread houses, and various other Christmas presents, been to one parade (that Max's football team was in), and had our annual Christmas party at our house. And Santa was most kind to them this year and left them new bikes and MP3 players. And our families once again spoiled them with many gifts which they adore!!! We are indeed so blessed and thank God for all the gifts he has given us this year. It has been a great year and we look forward to many wonderful memories to come in 2007. |
Clockwise from top: Our Family on Christmas Day The boys visit with the Big Man himself Nicholaus and Byron and their tootsie roll log cabin ginger bread house that had 2 pounds of Her$hey bars for a roof. Pops and Granny (Penney's folks) with all 4 grandsons. Such silliness! The boys giving GranMom (Byron's Mom) her special Christmas present. Max and Penney and their traditional gingerbread house. SO much fun!!! |
