Happy Birthay Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! This post may be a few days late, but better late then never. I am thankful for this great lady. She is a great friend, mom, grandma, wife, and example.

Here are some of my memories of my mom growing up.

I always loved coming through the door after school and smelling fresh home made bread. All through school starting in the first grade till graduation, the best days were the days when I got to eat homemade bread with butter and honey with my mom after school.

She loves books and loves learning from books. But one of my favorite things about my mom's love for books is her knowledge of the best children's books. One of my favorite things about my mom growing up was she always read us a book before bedtime... and I not ashamed to say that it even occasionally happened through jr. high. She was and still is a very good book reader as I am sure her grand kids would agree.

My mom is a very good seamstress. I had some very cool Halloween costumes growing up. My two favorite were the 4th and 5th grade costumes. For the 4th grade she made me a Harry Potter costume out of purple velvet and put sparkly stars all over it. I even got second in a costume contest. The 5th grade was my Ever After dress like the movie with Drew Barrymore. It was lovely, and my last real Halloween costume. As I got older she made my homecoming dress my junior year (she had by this point also made two prom dresses for Heidi and Jill's wedding dress, not to shabby ) I loved the expression on everyone's faces when I told them my Mom made my dress and they couldn't believe it because she had done such a good job... because most homemade formal dresses never really look that good, but mine and my sisters did : )

My Mom always grows a garden. Every spring when it came time for everyone to do the yard work that had collected over the past year, planting the garden was always on top of the list of things to do. It was fun to help my Mom grow her garden (except pull weeds...) and learn about gardening. She always said her Mom had a green thumb, and I think she does too, if the frost doesn't get the sprouts first. And when harvest time came in August through October it was fun to eat from that garden, even if that meant weeks and weeks of green beans and squash : )

My Mom always made Sunday a special day. In the morning she always played church music and I always felt that set the mood for the day and invited the spirit into our home. When everyone was at home we usually had a big Sunday breakfast with biscuits and gravy... so good. Then after church we would come home to the smell of the Sunday roast. That will forever be one of my favorite smells. However sadly Aaron is not a fan of having a roast every Sunday as I have come to learn...

Every year when I was at home during the first week of December we would go over the the Christmas tree lighting at the park. One year one of my Mom's friend that worked for the city asked her if she would paint children on wooden cut outs for some decorations. My mom is very creative and is a good painter, something she got from her Mom. Anyway these children to my knowledge are still used as decorations every year at the tree lighting.

 

Scout...

Jean Louise "Scout" Merrill 

1999-2011

Goodbye Scout......

You may have been neurotic, dirty, and not very cute, but I liked you.

Smiles : ) .....

She may only be 6 weeks old but she is smiling and has been smiling for a while now. Some may say its just gas but I don't think so : )

Not the Baby Anymore...

Aaron and I were a little bit worried about how Finch our cat would react to Daisy. So far he has only sniffed her a few times and doesn't seem to notice her to much. He has noticed that he is no longer our baby... he is just our pet. Poor cat, he doesn't get to sleep with us anymore because Daisy's bassinet is in our room for now and there is no way I want him in there when she sleeps. So he has been down graded from our bed to sleep outside our bedroom door. Everynight when I get up to feed Daisy I open the door and there he is just waiting for us to let him in. Oh well : )

Daisy

Daisy's first month of life has been a busy one. Daisy will be six weeks old this Sunday. I have taken way too many pictures of her and can't possibly post them all, but I will post some of my favorites so far in no particular order....

 About 3 weeks



 With cousins Hannah and Hailey... not sure which one is which in this picture though.

 Such a good Dad, lets hope he is as willing to change a diaper when she gets to eat yummy solid food : )

 With Santa at the Flemming Family Christmas Party.

 I think the shirt says it all...

 I love the back of her head! Its just so cute, and I wanted to take a picture of it before she rubs a bald spot... maybe we'll get lucky and she won't.

                                                                          5 Weeks

                                                                          First Bath

Don't they look so much alike? I think so.

Last Day at the Hospital.

Snuggles....

Backyard...

We recently were able to landscape our backyard. It was pretty ugly looking back there. Just dirt, rocks, and weeds high enough to peek over our five foot fence to been seen by all of our neighbors. Aaron and his cousin Tanner who knows how to landscape spent a few days spreading dirt and rock, laying grass, planting bushes, and building a little garden. They did an awesome job! I love having a real backyard, its like having another room added to my house and now I am not ashamed to open the widows facing it. I am also looking forward to planting a little garden... maybe I will make some salsa if I manage to grow anything : ).

 Before

 In the procces...

 Yay! So pretty!

We will be planting a peach tree in this corner soon....

Daisy Anne Brooks

Daisy Anne was born Nov. 28th at 6:42 AM, weighing 8 pounds and 1 ounce. She was a week over due, I guess she just wanted to come on her own time. We were very ready for her to come on or before her due date of Nov. 21st, but she had other plans. The week following my original due date was a long week. We wondered everyday if this was going to be the day. But finally on Saturday the 27th I felt a little bit different. I had spent the day putting up Christmas decorations and I felt so tired. In the evening Aaron got home from work and we went over to his Grandma's house for a family gathering. While we were there I could feel little contrations, which wasn't a big shock because I had been feeling them all week, but they were actually coming with more consistency every 20 to 30 minutes. So I decided to time them since the were becoming more uncomfortable with each one. By the time we went home around 9:00 the contrations were coming every 15 min. I told Aaron we may need to be ready to go to the hospital. So for the next hour I kept timing my contrations. During the hour our electricity went out and I was really focusing on my contrations. By the time our electricity came back on I told Aaron we could probably go to the hospital. So, we packed a bag and drove the 10 minutes to Del Web. I remember trying to remember the songs that were playing on the radio so someday when Daisy was older I could tell her "this song was playing when we went to the hospital to delivery you..." I can't remember any of the songs :) I do remember that my contrations were becoming more painful and more frequent, but nothing horrible. We got to the hospital, registered and were then taken up to labor and delivery. They gave me a gown to put on, but I couldn't figure it out. All the snaps were undone and I couldn't figure how to wear it. So there I was in the bathroom having contrations while wearing nothing and not being able to figure out how to get dressed. I poked my head out and asked Aaron to come help, he couldn't figure it out either, so he went and got our nurse. Luckily she was an awesome nurse and helped me get dressed. I was then checked to see how much I was dialated and I was at a 5. This meant I was really in labor and got to stay. I had been hesitant about going to the hospital earlier in the week for my contractions and then having to be sent home, but I knew it was time. Aaron and I were then taken to our room, where I promtly recieved my epideral. They asked me on a scale of 1-10 when I wanted to recieve my epidrual and I said 5 or 6... and I was at a 5 or 6. I had felt enough of labor to get the jist of it. If you know my husband you know that he has a tendancy to pass out in truamtic situations, like if there is blood or something of that nature. During my entire pregnancy he threatened to not be in the room when I delivered because he didn't want to pass out. Of course this wasn't an option, I would rather have a passed out Aaron with me than no Aaron :) Anyway during my epidural Aaron started to get clamy and tunel vision. He must have caught a glimps of the needle (I didn't look, I still have no idea how big those things are). He was sitting down as a precaution before the epidural, but it didn't help. The nurse got him some apple juice and he was fine. By this time it was around midnight and we had a few hours of labor a head. So Aaron and I tried to get some sleep. Aaron hadn't sleep in over 24 hours by this point because of work so I was glad that he was able to get some sleep. I was in and out of it for the next hour or two. I would watch the monitor and see a contration coming and think "I am so glad I am not feeling that!" It was a stange feeling to have my lower half be almost completely numb, but I was glad that it was numb. By 4:00 I had dialated to a 9 and the nurse said that Daisy would probably be here within the next few hours. By 5:50 I started pushing. We had a great nurse, she did a really good job. About a 20 min. into pushing our nurse told us she could see the tip of Diasy's head and that she had a lot of hair and it was dark. Aaron and I were both surprised, we had been expecting a bald blond baby. I think at this point Aaron scooted his chair over to my bed and the doctor came in. The doctor told Aaron and I to kiss one last time while it was still the two of us and we did. I pushed for a few more minutes and then she came. She didn't really cry, and I can't remember if her eyes were open, but I do remember how wonderful it felt when they put her on my chest. I couldn't get over how much hair she had and what she looked like. I also loved the expression on Aaron's face, he wasn't woosy and even cut the cord. They took her away for a quick bath and weigh. Aaron held her and then they gave her back to me. She was sucking on her little pointer finger and it was so cute. She had actually sucked on the doctor's finger while coming out.... She came just before sunrise on a sunday morning. We stayed at the hospital till Tuesday and then went home. I love the feeling of warmth that Diasy brought with her. One of Aaron's cousins put it like this "she's fresh from heaven" and she really is. I love having this new little spirit in our home. She is grand baby number 6 on the Brooks side and grand baby number 12 on the Merrill side. I am so grateful for her and my own little family.

I want to thank everyone who came to see her in the hospital. It meant a lot to see everyone come and support us :) I also wanted to thank my Dad for driving 6 hours in a snow storm, after getting only a few hours of sleep from drivng home from Flagstaff the night before to come see Daisy. I also wanted to thank my mom for coming to help me for the first few days and for all her her help. It meant a lot to open my fridge and it was full of food... so thanks mom! I love you! I also wanted to thank Aaron's mom Rena for all of her help and her meals, it meant alot. This little girl has some great grandma's! and great Grandma's :)

p.s. I know there are alot of words spelt wrong in this post, but my spell check won't work and I am a horrible speller... so that is that.