well at least thats what it looks like we're having. we've had two ultrasounds done since the baby has been big enough to determine the gender, and from the looks of it, there's nothing between the legs. my next appointment is the 25th and my dr does ultrasounds at every visit, so im hoping to get a third and final confirmation. but we're pretty sure that things will stay pink. of course ive already bought a couple little pink flowery outfits just cause ive never got to before but thats all we've done. i havent picked out bedding or anything big yet. we do have a name though, and i guess that's a big one. her name will be Taylor Jean Brooks. Taylor is joe's moms maiden name and Jean is my grandmas first name. but we both like the name even if it didnt relate to our families at all. i know ive lived in the new house for a couple months now but i still havent got the computer set up with the scanner yet, so still no pictures. maybe i'll try to put that on my to-do list for this week. i dont watch any kids full time anymore, just two little part timers. so maybe later this week when its just me and landen ill be able to get something accomplished while he's napping. then i can post some belly pictures for everyone to laugh at. really im not that huge yet, but i do for sure have a belly and i think as of two weeks ago ive gained like 11 pounds. but my little sister is pregnant too right now so its been really fun getting big together. we found out two days apart the genders (she's having a boy and this will be her first natural child). her hubby has a little guy from a previous relationship. she's naming her little dude Austin James and he's due three weeks after our little girl is due. so it'll be interesting to see who gains the most weight, and who is closest to their due dates and who delivers first. guess thats all for now :)

today is the day!

we're going solar today!

no joe and i are not glorified tree huggers, and we really dont stress about what type of earth we are leaving for our great great grandchildren. but we ARE interested in saving money that we fork out every month for electricity. for those of you who do not live in bakersfield during the summer, it might be hard to imagine $300 a month bill just to keep the house cool, but those of you who are local know exactly what im talking about!! so before we bought this house we played with the idea of getting solar panels put on our next house. we contacted a couple solar companies and had them come out and give us their sales pitch and tell us what everything would cost and how much it would save us. so we decided to go with REC Solar to install 30 solar panels on our new house. rather than forking out the full $30k for the system they offer this third party company called SunRun where you pay half the price up front and then basically lease the equipment from them and buy the solar energy back from them at a discounted fixed rate. plus then that company is responsible for maintaining the equipment for 18 years. after the 18 years we pay $4k to buy the equipment from SunRun and just use our own energy. So once we're all up and running our house will be producing about 700kwh of electricity each month to help offset our bills. if we use less than that, we get a credit (kinda like cingular with the rollover minutes) and if we use more then we just pay the difference. the whole thing should pay for itself within 5-7 years too. so its a totally good investment not to mention it totally increases the value of our house too!! they're putting up the panels today so i'll take some pics of the final product tomorrow. but just had a few minutes and thought i should put a post out there for ya all. oh and next week we should find out if we're having a boy or a girl!!!

i'm still alive!!!

for those of you who read this, im sure you're beyond amazed that im finally writing again. it's only been like 4-5 months :) i know i know im a slacker at the cyber blogging thing. but we've been so busy the last few months and i never get around to uploading the millions of pictures that i promise i DO take. landen is down for a nap and the daycare kid is being well behaved so i thought id write a quick update so everyone knows im still breathing. we've moved into the new house and are totally loving it! we have been here a month now and we actually are getting out first neighbors today! up til now its just been us and the model home on our entire street. i wanna try to be a nice new welcoming neighbor and make them cookies or something or have them over for dinner. hopefully they're nice people and we enjoy having them live across the street. i promise over the weekend i'll post pictures of the house for all to see. along with posting 5 months worth of blog updates so everyone knows what the brooks have been doing all summer long. oh and if you didn't already notice the little ticker thing on the side of my blog.........we're pregnant! i guess this is me officially announcing it to everyone. we wanted to wait until we were out of the high risk first trimester since we've already had one miscarriage. but im officially 14 weeks now and dr says everything is looking great. at my next appt on oct. 31 we get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. im soo anxious to find out it's all i can do to not count down the hours til my appt! well the babysitting kiddo is starting to get cranky so i guess that's my que to get off the computer. hope this was at least a little bit of excitment to hear from us after soo long :)

our first disneyland trip!!!

well we survived our first trip with landen to disneyland. it was soo fun for me and joe to watch landen go on all those rides. he did really well and seemed to have a good time. a few rides he wasnt too thrilled about (matterhorn, snow white, pirates of the Caribbean). and there were a few rides he wasnt big enough to ride yet (space mountain, splash mountain, big thunder mountain, star tours, indiana jones). but everything else he had to be ripped away from at the end of his turn. he didnt quite understand the concept of getting off the ride and giving someone else a turn. he did really well riding in his stroller around the park for me since joe was in a wheelchair and couldnt help chase him down. we rode all the rides that we could at least once. the lines weren't bad at all, not to mention since joe was in the wheelchair we got to go in the exits and go straight to the front of ALL the rides :) we all had a great time and can't wait to go again. we plan to go another couple times this summer!!! so here's the pics that im sure you'll all waiting for

belated pictures

just his random cuteness with his new flashlight firetruck from auntie april

sleeping in his own bed for his nap all by himself like a BIG BOY!!!

enjoying the nice spring weather we had (that is now GONE)

updated pic of our house thats all framed!

he had been sick and decided this was the comfortable way to sleep on the couch that night :)

he's such a big boy!

well now that landen is TWO i figured i need to really get firm and teach him to take his naps in his own bed and get him to go to sleep at night without me or joe having to lay in there with him for half an hour. so yesterday i started being a mean mom and sticking him in his bed and taking him back there a zillion times after he keeps getting up. so he ended up not taking a nap at all yesterday. and then bedtime was over two hours worth of getting up and me putting him back. today for nap i put him in there and hid in his room behind his desk. so id put him back in the bed as soon as he'd hit the ground. i think he started to realize i was over there (even though he couldnt see me) and after only half an hour he actually stayed in his bed and took a nap!!!!! he's been in there asleep for about an hour now too! i even took pics to prove it :)
besides that things are going good here. im only babysitting three kids now instead of six. those extra three older kids were just too much for me so i told the parents i couldnt do it anymore. i really enjoy only havin a couple extra kids around rather than a full blown daycare. the house is coming along good, got it all framed and are starting the plumbing and electrical stuff. joe's knee is healing well and he's doing physical therapy three times a week now too. he actually drove himself to therapy yesterday and made it all the way to blockbuster today!
well thats about all i have to report here. pics to come shortly (the site wouldnt let me add them at the moment)

just some random updatedness

well landen is officially 2 yrs old and his party was a huge success. he hadn't been feeling better so no luck getting good pictures of him eating cake and making a mess, cause he didn't want to have a cupcake. he got lots of adorable clothes and tons of awesome toys. like he needs anymore toys huh!?!? but he had a blast and grandma and grandpa brooks came all the way from san diego too! they even spent the night with us to be able to spend Easter morning with landen. it was so cute watching landen walk around the house (in his diaper cause he had a fever) hunting for candy and plastic eggs. we also went by our "house" yesterday and there's almost the entire first floor framed. we can't wait until it looks like a real house!!!

our new house!!

well it is official, we are having a house built here in bakersfield
we know we'd really rather live in san diego area, but the job market isnt moving very quickly for joe to get transferred down there
so we figure if we're going to be living here for a while we might as well take advantage of the booming housing market and jump in while to deals are still good
we have been looking for a few weeks and found this new development with a floorplan that we absolutely loved, it was soo perfect for us!
we found out all the details and after a few days of bouncing back and forth with different offers, the house is ours!
they just poured the foundation on monday and started on the framework today
they said it takes about five months, so we should be moving in sometime around august
the house will end up being a 2 story, 3000 sq ft, 5 bedroom, 3 bath, bonus room above the garage, den and formal dining
its a gigantic house in a really nice part of town in a fancy new gated community
i cant wait til its done and we get to move in!
until then just expect lots of pictures of the work in progress

my new job :)

well i have managed to survive nearly two years as a stay at home mom. its always nice to make money, but daycare is super expensive typically and i really enjoy being able to stay home with landen rather than sending him somewhere else and have someone else raise him. but landen is enjoying having friends come over every day and its nice for me too. i still am watching Joey who is about the same age as landen, and just this week ive added another little kiddo. his name is Jackson and he just turned 7 weeks old. his mom had to go back to work after her maternity leave so he's here hanging out with me all day. so far he's been a really good baby and landen loves helping with him. anyone who wants to know the secret to not going bonkers being home with two two year olds and a newborn.........get em all to take a nap at the same time!
the proof is in the pudding :)

Easter 2008

Got a couple pics of landen for Easter. isnt he the cutest thing in the world!!!

my newest foster maggie

thought i would introduce everyone to my newest foster dog Maggie. I picked her up this morning at the kern county animal control. she is a sweetheart and wants to give lots of kisses, she just doesnt have real good manners. she thinks she needs to be in your lap and comes full force right into you. poor landen has been knocked over a couple times already :(
took her to the vet this afternoon and she got a clean bill of health. She weighs almost 22 pounds so she's a pretty solid girl. anyways, she'll be up for adoption through the rescue anytime now, check her and the other bostons out at www.bostonbuddies.org

my youtube account

well while i was waiting to remember my password info for my blog
i decided to set up a youtube account so that i could post video's of landen
ive also got a few of my most recent foster doggie Lexi as she was recovering for a horrendous cause of mange and general neglect.
for those of you who'd like to check out my video's along with reading this blog the link is:

http://youtube.com/user/rmanduh313

landen's first stitches :(

well landen isn't yet two and he's already gotten his first set of stitches. on his head even
he was playin with his trainset and all his matchbox cars and tripped and fell backwards
he hit the back of his head on the corner of the trundle drawer and split it open
took him to the dr and they said he needed stitches
he wasn't even crying and it had pretty much stopped bleeding, but they said if we didnt close it up there would be a spot on that area where hair wouldnt grow back EVER
so they strapped him down to a board and i laid over the top of him while the nurse held his head in position. landen cried and screamed and it was awful!
towards the end i almost passed out when i was watching the dr stitch him up
but he did fine and recovered without any hitches
took him back 10 days later to remove the 4 stitches and only one was left
they said its pretty common for the wound to shrink when it heals and for some of the stitches to just fall out
let's hope we dont have another experience like that one again for a very long time!

the new fishie tank

so here is the new and FINAL fish tank. for those of you who don't already know, we got landen a small ten gallon tank to put up in his playroom back around october. we decided we wanted something bigger so we could have more fish. so i looked online and found a used 37 gallon tank for 20 bucks. figured it was a great deal, but then realized it would cost over $100 for all the accessories that weren't included. that same day i bought that tank, i found another used tank on craigslist that was 45 gallons but came with all the accessories. so i called up that guy and bought his tank as well. we set up that tank and had it goin for about a month when we realized that although it was a good size, since it was soo tall we couldnt get in there to clean it or add any new decorations. so we decided to start looking for a new one and planned to sell that 45 gallon tank asap. so now we have this tank. its 100 gallons and its here to stay. it came with the really nice wood stand as well and for a pretty decent price. i ended up selling the 45 gallon tank to my good friend Jennifer who is loving it in her apartment :). so we currently have 25 fish which include: 7 tiger barbs (2 of which are green, 1 albino, and 4 standard tiger), 3 giant danios, 3 bala sharks, 3 redtail tinfoil barbs (2 of which are golden, 1 silver), 6 cory catfish (3 albino, 3 peppered), 1 pleco (aka suckerfish), 1 dwarf gourami and 1 opaline gourami. if you dont know what any of these fish look like and you'd like to know just google it. its crazy hard to get a good picture of a fish as its racing around a 100 gallon tank!
and to this day we've only had 1 big accident with the water :)

Valentines day

k so i guess im just catching up on the holidays that have occurred since my old entry. i wanted to suprise joe with something totally outta the ordinary. i was looking online and happened across this really nice foosball table for sale. so i bought it and got it home without him even knowing. of course then he had to help me unload it and put it back together too. but its totally fun when company comes over and we can all play on it. we havent got to enjoy it much with just the two of us, cause the bars are perfect level to poke landen in the eye and he cant stand to stay away from it when we try to play.
joe got me a really nice black jacket to wear when its cold but not cold enough for my big poofy one. its really thin and lightweight, but still keeps you really warm. and its nice enough to wear it with church clothes and stuff like that. rather than lookin like im about to go build a snow man :)
oh and of course he got me roses too!
i got landen a couple cute little heart balloons and some books
he LOVES to punch the balloons all over the house

Christmas re-cap

K so these next few posts will be majorly delayed, but i figure its better late than never. we had a nice christmas this year spending christmas morning in san diego with joe's side of the family. they really enjoyed watching landen open his gifts. his first present to open was some hot wheels cars and he was set. he refused to put them down or open anything else. who knew christmas could be so affordable!?! he also got this really cute power wheels thing for toddlers. its the perfect size for him and he's finally figuring out how to steer it. it goes like 2mph and can go forward or reverse.
joe and i decided rather than buying individual gifts for each other to just get one combo gift. so we got a Nintendo Wii. we were super lucky to find one cause EVERYONE was sold out of them. we got up to go shopping on black friday and found a video store that had 4 of them available, and we got the third one!!!! so we bought games and accessories for it and called it done.
we cant wait for next christmas when landen might actually sit on santa's lap. for now he's still terrified of him. which is cute in itself too! so we just stuck with the generic family christmas pics and did one with the pooches too. how cute huh!

IM FINALLY BACK!

upfront apologies for those of you who are patiently waiting for prego pictures. i would have posted something sooner but i had forgotten my password for this dang blog, so i havent been able to log-in. which also meant i could comment to anyone about their blogs either. so lets see, the last time i posted was at thanksgiving. so from then to now:
-we had a miscarriage at 10 weeks along- i started spotting some brown stuff so we called the dr. but it was a saturday so they said either wait til monday or go to the urgent care. we went to urget care and sat in the waiting room for like 4 hours until they FINALLY called us back. the dr did an internal ultrasound and said he couldnt find a heartbeat. he said it might have just been really weak, but to go see my normal OB dr first thing monday. so let me tell ya! that was a LONG weekend of waiting. by sunday the spotting had changed into pretty heavy bleeding and clotting, so i pretty much knew what was going on. by monday the fetus had already passed, but they still wanted to go in and do a D&C to clean everything out. i recovered wonderfully and have been doing good since then.
-christmas was great-ill have to post another update just on all that stuff
-got a season pass to san diego zoo & the san diego wild animal park. we've been to the zoo twice so far and landen really loves the animals. havent gone to the wild animal park yet cause that just seems like too much walking and i figure since the enclosures are so big, landen might not get a good look at the animals there.
-valentines day was also nice-ill post another entry just on that
-finally got to buy ourselves something big and expensive and totally unnecessary. joe's been wanting a huge tv forever, but we've always had other things we needed to pay off first (my old car, and my student loans) so we've finally got that all done. joe's been comparing stores and brands and styles of big tv's for a while now and decided on the one he wanted. it happened to be on sale this month at costco for $300 off, so i told him to just get it. he wanted to wait a while and see if the prices drop more, but i told him we better just get it now while we have the money or something will come up and he'll never get it. so we now have a 52" Sony Bravia LCD High Def. television. its gigatic and beautiful!!! anyone who wants to come check it out is invited :)
-landen had his first big accident- ill post a separate entry about this one too, but sorry no pics
-preparing for landen's upcoming birthday- can you believe he's already gunna be 2 yrs old!!
-we got a HUGE fishtank!! its 100 gallons and looks soo cool, ill post pics soon!
k well thats it for the general update stuff, so now i gotta do separate ones for the big stuff to include pictures