Here are two quick pictures of Chip and the boys in celebration that Chip is home for the next three weeks to celebrate the holidays with us!

Here are the boys, being boys, but also showing their “brotherly love”

Here are some random pictures of our family

Daddy & Bo

Mommy & Levi

Mommy & the boys

Bo “shaving” like Daddy

Levi’s smile

It seems like overnight Bo has grown into such a big boy! We have some VERY exciting news to share!  Bo is fully potty trained and wearing big-boy underwear even at night (since Tuesday) with only one accident so far. He goes potty all by himself now also. How’d he do it? Well it was a combination of temporary tattoos and a reward potty chart (one sticker for every #2 on the potty) that once full he got to go any buy a special Thomas train to add to his collection. Yep, he was covered in tattoos for a while, but it was well worth it!

Bo is a very good big brother. He loves to kiss and hold Levi (with help of course). He also enjoys helping Mommy and Daddy keep the house clean and doing small chores like throwing away diapers and picking up after himself.

Bo also got a new hair cut recently. Much to Mimi’s dismay we shaved his head. It looks very cute and makes him look a lot older. Mommy didn’t want to at first but when Bo asked “Mommy, can I get haircut like Daddy’s?” how could I refuse?!

Here are some pictures of Bo, Levi & Daddy watching videos on the computer.

Here are some great pictures of our family swimming back on July 21. Our neighbor “Mr. Josh” (as Bo calls him) took these for us.

Big Brother Bo and Little Brother Levi meet and become fast friends. On the first day Bo didn’t care much for the squirmy little Levi but we previously arranged for the boy’s to exchange gifts. Bo gave Levi a stuffed doggy and Levi gave Bo a train for his Thomas train table (James seen in pictures below). The train gift quickly won over his big brother and the next day when they visited Bo asked to hold Levi.

On Sunday as we were getting ready to leave a nurse told us about a fun thing called “Hand Hugs”. Bo wanted to lay with Levi and give him hand hugs. Levi turned it into hand kisses which Bo loved!

Here’s a funny picture of Bo playing in the nightstand while we waited to be discharged from the hospital.

So we’re at the hospital, they’ve broken my water and I’m having mild contractions…while we wait I thought I would post some very adorable pictures of Bo, my niece (aka Blondie) and my nephew (aka Bear) riding horses yesterday.

Well were all excited about getting a cool 3D Ultrasound of Levi on Tuesday but of course the little stinker was face down and apparently asleep because he refused to move.  Ugg!  We did get a great view of his spine, liver, kidneys and heart (all from the back) and the doctor said Levi is perfect and healthy YAY!!  But oh what a let down after being so excited to see his precious little face in 3D.  If I hadn’t had a good hold on those emotion-boiling-over pregnancy hormones I probably would have cried.  Doc says I’m fine too - weight is good and all that jazz.

In other baby news we went shopping for summer newborn size clothes (Bo was a winter baby).  I spent this morning nesting rearranging the boy’s room and I think I have it the way that will work best but only time will tell.  Carters was having a clearance sale and we found Bo a “Big Brother” shirt to wear when Levi comes.  We also got Levi an adorable leaving-the-hospital outfit that is puppies (complete with hat and puppy socks).  I had forgotten how baby stuff just kinda takes over and if I remember correctly this is only the beginning, but I’m loving every minute.

Our family attended the open house of the brand new maternity care center at Athens Regional where we will deliver Levi..  The place is just beautiful and I’m so excited!  During the open house the nurses showed us around and one really nice nurse let Bo take pictures.  It was so amazing that he knew how to work the camera!!  He knew just which button to press and how to aim it and everything.  They have renovated all the old delivery rooms and we were amazed to see the changes they have made since we had Bo.  We even got to see the room he was born in.  It would be kind of neat to have Levi in the same room, but since all the rooms are equally nice I’ll be fine no matter where we are besides I doubt I care very much about anything other than the delivery.  The postpartum rooms are twice the size of the old ones and it will be nice for Chip to have a real bed to sleep in instead of a chair.  We all had a great time seeing where “baby brother will be born” and it made his impending arrival all that more exciting.

Not much to report on the farm-front except that Bo’s pet chicken Sophie isn’t a chicken after all, but a rooster!  She’s not a she, but rather a HE!  *He* crows very badly proudly and struts like *he* is the stuff but the best part is *he* is still the nicest out of the whole flock!  (I have to specify *he* because I still keep calling him a she and I don’t want to hurt his feelings so I’m trying to stop.)  Some of the hens are mean and I stay away from them for the most part but Sophie (no we’re not changing his name) lets me hold him and lets Bo pet him too.  Chip says the hens might start laying eggs around the end of August.  We were not counting on having a rooster so we will have to be careful to pick up all the eggs so we don’t have any chicks.  Since we have no clue what breed Sophie is we probably wouldn’t be able to sell the chicks and I don’t want we don’t need anymore.

The garden is growing pretty well.  We have WAY too many carrots and the okra plants have to be checked daily so the pods don’t grow to large (and hard).  We have lots of tomatoes coming in also.  The corn and onions haven’t done well at all, but we are thankful for everything we have gotten so far.

Bo is still very excited about going to ride Thomas and we are counting down the days (two weeks from tomorrow).  I drew a little blue train on the calendar and showed him how the boxes stand for each day we have to wait to go ride Thomas.  He didn’t look too happy to see so many boxes between now and then, but he is being very patient and good about it.

Well that’s about all the news I have for now.

So Bo’s newest obsession is Thomas the Train. Okay, in all fairness this is not a new obsession it is more like a recently-developed fixation on a somewhat old fascination. He’s always liked Thomas right along with Bob the Builder and Lightning McQueen, but lately this thing for Thomas has taken over - mainly our living room and our family conversations.

The fascination became an overblown fixation when Chip and I heard that the *real* Thomas was coming to Dillsboro, GA (about a 1½ hour drive) and we looked into it. So our Day out with Thomas was planned and we made the HUGE mistake of telling Bo that we were going to ride Thomas. Of course we are crazy for telling a 2½ year old that when he has no clue this is a month away (we’re going July 25th)! So he asks on a daily basis if we’re going to ride Thomas. He puts it: “Go ride Thomas and friends make tracks to great nations hundred dollars?” Thomas and Friends Make Tracks to Great Destinations is the movie we have and where the hundred dollars came from we have no clue!?

The fixation continued even deeper when Aunt Erin sent us the link to a Toys R Us coupon for a free wooden Thomas train. So we go in for the free one and come out with $70 worth of Thomas trains and track. AHH!! We ended up with Thomas, Percy, Annie and Clarabel, Harold the Helicopter, the Musical Caboose and the starter track set. We’re in this far why stop now right? Grandma has been holding another track set and a play table until we were ready for it so Chip brings that home yesterday morning and we set it up.

Being the ever frugal shopper he is Chip insisted we go back and try to get another free toy yesterday. They were all sold out of the free ones. Yay Darn. So we stop by Target because that’s the only place around where Thomas sheets can be found. Bo has Lightning McQueen bed sheets but I wanted a spare set so we thought why not Thomas. So keeping with the day’s theme they were sold out of the set we wanted, but we did find some “Thomas colored” sheets on clearance (light blue, navy, red and white striped) that Bo decided would be “cool”. We ended up down the wooden train isle and thankfully their selection was much smaller than Toys R Us. We decided to get him Toby (another of his favorites) but I kept it hidden until after dinner. Chip gets out to pump gas (don’t get me started on that either $4/gallon!!!) and Bo has been looking at the paper that came with the trains that shows all the available models and track, etc. since we won’t let him leave the house with these $10/each trains. Chip points to one and asks “who is that?”. Bo promptly and correctly answers “Toby,” and continues to read the paper. Chip pulls out the wooden one and asks “who is this?”. Bo looks shocked and says “TOBY!” then smiles the rest of the way home. It was so cute! He kept asking “Toby came from?” and I tried my best to explain that we got him at the store but wanted to surprise him.

Anyway now he’s quite the little conductor and rarely leaves his train table.

The Conductor

Hard at work keeping “Sodor” moving.

I’m a really useful engine!

…the widget on the side of the page changed from “Baby Brother” to “Levi Asher”? Well that’s because we finally decided on a name for our newest addition to the Brooks home! Next time you see Bo ask him what baby brother’s name is and he’ll give you the full scoop He gets very excited about Levi coming, even more so now that we ordered him bunk beds (arriving later this week) and we explained that when his big boy bed comes he’ll get to “pass down” his crib to Levi.

We have another doctor appointment on Thursday so hopefully we will give you another update. As of our last visit Levi was measuring one week ahead of schedule. No shock there since Bo measured (and came) early almost from the beginning. We must grow big babies