Learn About Us: Tommy Edition!

Tommy's Favorite Things:

#1: Books. He adores gathering all of his books and dumping them on my lap, then happily exclaims "Let's read Mommy!"

He is so cute.

So, we read. To go through each of his books, it takes us close to an hour. Each day we read a new chapter of one of the longer reads, like Mary Poppins or The Wind in the Willows. He can't get enough of it. We also go through an English to German translation book, so he has learned a lot of German words.

#2: Pirate stuff. He got this pirate ship for Christmas, and now I often find him in his room looking for treasure with his ship. We're actually going to start watching Pirates of the Caribbean, because I know he will love it.

#3: Cats! As most of you know, Tommy fancies himself a cat. I've started calling him TomKat.

#4: Playing with Tristan. He loves pushing him around in his trucks. And as you can see, Tristan loves it too. They are so cute together!

#5: Watching movies. Tommy owns more movies than Justin and I. He knows how to work the TV and DVD player by himself, so sometimes he'll go in his room and watch a movie, and I won't realize until I wonder why it's so quiet.

He has two chairs in his room so his friends can come over and watch with him. That's definitely one of Tommy's favorite things to do.

#6: Get his picture taken. He is the best model, he lets me tell him what to do for pictures and then he can't wait to see how they turn out. He's a pro. Haha :) I followed him around today with the camera trying to capture his favorite things, he didn't mind!

I love everything about you, Tommy! ♥

The Bright Side

Justin got a message back from the head of orders personnel. We're staying in Germany. Justin is deploying in December. We won't get to the states until August 2012.

WAH!! :(

Tommy will now demonstrate my reaction to this news:

First, shock.

Because, honestly, I wasn't expecting this.

Then, disbelief.

Third, sadness.

Then I pouted a little bit.

After all of those emotions, we chose to look on the bright side.

First, Justin will be sent to Iraq. This is infinitely better than Afghanistan. Iraq is mostly peaceful right now, so Justin will be safe. Also, they have excellent internet there, so I'll be able to skype with Justin often. Thirdly, Justin is being sent to a resort type of base, so he'll have swimming pools, good food, etc. He probably won't really feel like he's deployed, except for the fact I won't be there. :( Another perk, Justin will make a lot more money while deployed and we'll be buying a house as soon as we get back to the states.

The best news of all? He'll only be deployed for 9 months instead of 12 or 18!

We also need to appreciate that instead of leaving Germany in August, and suffering another move (SO not fun moving from one country to another!) and then only staying for one year at another duty station before his enlistment is up (and then suffering ANOTHER move), we'll get to leave Germany AND THE ARMY at the same time. That is pretty convenient I must admit.

So what are my plans this go around? Last deployment I went back to AZ for most of it, and spent the last 3 months in Germany. I'm staying here this time. I just can't make the trip with two kids. So I've actually applied for a job as a field representative for a higher education learning program. Something to keep me busy while Justin is gone, get me out of the house everyday. I'm going to learn German if it kills me. I'll be really sad to say I've spent 4 years in Germany and don't even know the language. And thirdly, I'm going to practice my cooking skillz (especially German recipes) and impress Justin with them when he gets back. :)

If anyone wants to come and visit, please please please PLEASE DO! I have very good friends here to keep me company but I miss all of you in AZ and UT!

Love,

A Despaired Army Wife.

I've earned that title for at least two days! Haha :)

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!