Fixing Photos

Thought I'd share this, I was so excited. I was going through old pictures and found this one of Tommy. The sun was shining brightly and the picture was taken with a bad camera, so they came out too bright. My photo editor fixed it!

Before:

After:

You really don't need the best camera for good looking pictures.

Haircuts, Shopping & Photography!

Justin and I are redecorating our house! Yesterday we went out and looked at tons of furniture, trying to get an idea of what we want. We spent about 3 hours browsing around, what do you think?

This is the first entertainment center. This is the style in Europe. Justin really likes it, I'm not sure about it. It's just so low to the floor, I think the kids will try to touch the tv. Plus we have our tv mounted on the wall, and we would have to take it down.

This one is my favorite. We could keep our tv mounted, and the tv pictured here looks a lot like ours, so I think it would go well. I love the lights, it looks cool!

This is the bed we decided on. I love it!!! We're going to put the shelf and lights above the bed, just like it is here. Perfect for reading at night. We've never really given much thought to the furniture we buy, so I'm excited to finally start buying furniture that we love. We want to get all of it before we go back to the states, because they don't sell this style in the US. The bed is low to the ground, which is the style here. I think it's really cute.

Also, Tristan got his first haircut today! His hair got really really long, I can't believe our 7 month old needed a haircut! I think Tommy was at least 9 months before he needed one. Tristan did pretty well. He wanted to inspect the stranger touching him, but he didn't wiggle too much. While we were waiting to get his haircut, he loved staring at all the other people there. He got quite a lot of attention, even from "tough" army guys who don't like babies. :) He is just irresistible.

All finished! Isn't it cute!

I'm still having a blast playing with my camera. It's the best gift Justin has ever given me. I'm learning how to edit and all the different settings my camera has. It was really tedious at first but now that I have the hang of it, it's fun.

Silly Tommy.

♥ Love, The Brookes

Everyday is an Adventure!

Tristan is trying out his new taste buds, and so far so good. He's getting used to carrots, which was Tommy's first taste of baby food. Tommy LOVED it, Tristan not so much. It took a couple days before Tristan would open his mouth and swallow them. This was taken on day #2. He's much more open to the idea and even gave me a smile after a successful mouthful.

(Yummy!)

This is his first try of the carrots. He wasn't too thrilled, as you can see.

Most of it got on his bib...

This is what a typical morning looks like, Tommy and Tristan hanging out on the couch, Tommy entertaining Tristan with one of his old baby toys. Two peas in a pod, these two.

Adventure: Baby food, success! What will tomorrow bring? We'll see!

What 2011 means to us...

Justin and I are in for some BIG changes this next coming year. I was just thinking about it and thought we should share our plans with our families.

We leave Germany August 2011!! We are SO excited to be living in the states again. We have enjoyed our experience living here, but we're ready to be home again. (Hello, Wal Mart, we MISSED YOU!!)

There is no 100% guaranteeing where we'll be sent next. Until Justin gets his official orders in May or June, it's up in the air. BUT, Justin has put in for Ft. Carson, Colorado. We are 99% sure that's where we'll be stationed next. It's closer to family, and we have heard some good things about the Ft. Carson.

Even though we're excited to be leaving, I feel a bit sad too. Germany has been our home for almost 3 years and it will be weird not to be here anymore. I'll miss so much about it. It's just so beautiful here. There is still so much I want to see before we leave. Justin and I haven't told many people, but we are planning a HUGE vacation. We'll be traveling through France, Spain, and Italy on our way out of Germany. When our time in Germany is up, Justin will have 30 days of leave and that is when we plan to travel everywhere. One of the big things I'm looking forward to is Disneyland Paris! After 4 years of being in the army, I feel we deserve this trip.

We will be in Colorado for one year, after that Justin's enlistment will be up. We talked a little about re-enlistment, but in the end decided against it. We're ready to move onto something else. Being in the military has been wonderful and has come with so many blessings. We would not be where we are now financially without it. We've survived boot camp, AIT, and a deployment, and I am proud to say so. We have been through so much as a family and it has really strengthened us and given us important life lessons. Though it was hard, we wouldn't change it for the world.

6 months before Justin's enlistment is over, we plan to have a job lined up for Justin. There is a good possibility we end up back in Arizona. We have high hopes we'll have a few options to choose from. With Justin's extensive training in the army, we have many doors open to think about.

We want to thank all of you, our family and friends, for being there for us through our time in Germany. Even though we're an ocean away, I've always felt you were all still there for us. Thank you! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Can't wait for 2011!

♥

The Brooke's :)

Twins?

I swear it could be the same baby!

The Many Faces of Tristan

Happy

Mad

Silly

Curious

Serious

Photography

As an early Christmas present, Justin got me a nice camera. He gave it to me early because 1. He couldn't wait to see my face when I opened it and 2. So I could use it for our upcoming trip to Garmisch. (which was really fun and I still need to post about it!)

So I've been using photo editing and really trying to get better at photography. It's always interested me but hadn't done much of it. Being a scrapbooker, being able to take my own pictures has been awesome. The only downside? My house has been neglected because I'm on te computer editing instead of cleaning. :)

Here are some of the photos I've worked on. What do you think?

I know this one is hard to see on blogger, but it says "Boys are meant for Kisses".