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This past week we had our official family pictures taken like we do every year. I’m sure you will see these pics again when we send out Christmas cards. Our neighbor “Mr. Josh” took these for us and they turned out great!

Bo is becoming more and more camera-wary and usually refuses to smile but he did well enough for us to get a few with him smiling and/or actually looking at the camera Levi did well too considering we woke him up from his nap to take them.

As most of you know we don’t celebrate the typical “halloween” but we do have our own special family traditions this time of year. We pick and carve pumpkins and the kids dress up in their costumes, usually 3 or 4 different times to see all of our family. This year Bo was a monkey (complete with banana) and Levi was a “chubby bunny”. Here are some pictures.

Picking punkins:

Bo insisted on holding his pumpkin in his lap on the way home. That lasted all of 15 minutes before he started saying “It’s too heavy!” (one of his favorite sayings).

In their costumes

Our whole family loves the Georgia Bulldogs, but Bo seems to have the most fun dressing out for the games. We usually listen to the games on the radio since they are usually on ESPN and we don’t have satellite or cable, just local channels.  Here are some pictures of our “Bulldog” family

Our family attended our local county fair and we had a lot of fun! I’ve dated the post for the day we went since I’m so behind in blogging

Here’s our family. Levi is in the stroller of course

Bo’s favorite attraction at the fair was the John Deere tractors. He had to sit or climb on all of them.

He even figured out how to turn this one on! No they didn’t leave the key in it, but apparently the lights and such will come on without a key. Go figure that my 2 1/2 year old can figure it out!

Bo had a ball just pretending to drive it. I’m sure if he could have he would have taken it for a test drive.

Bo’s favorite ride at the fair was the train (duh!). He rode it three times.

Funny story about the little girl riding with him. The first ride they both rode in the engine and she made sure he was buckled in. The next ride they both went for the caboose and she sat next to him. Half way through the ride she kissed him. When we got in the car to go home (at least an hour later) Bo said “Daddy, that girl kissed me!” He wasn’t excited or upset, just in awe. It was cute, but of course I’m NOT ready for my little boy to be talking about and/or actually being kissed!

“Can we get this ride going, please?”

“Hey Mommy! Hey Daddy! Hey Levi!”

Here’s me and Levi. He started to get tired of the stroller, but overall he did very well.

Bo also enjoyed the whale ride.

And he was even brave enough to get on the dragon roller coaster! He liked it at first but after about the 3rd time around he was saying “All done, Daddy! All done!”

Well we are home and somewhat settled in so I thought I might go back and tell the whole birth story of how Levi came into the world I had a doctor’s appointment Thursday morning so Aunt Erin was nice enough to keep Bo for me since Chip had overtime for the day. The doctor was very concerned with Levi’s amniotic fluid levels and wanted me to a) be induced or b) stay at the hospital for constant monitoring over the weekend.  He explained it as the lower his fluids the weaker he would be and might not be able to withstand the birth if he was dehydrated, etc.  Knowing it would be a L-O-N-G weekend sitting at the hospital waiting for something to happen we decided to go ahead and have my water broken. We did decided however that this is where the medical intervention would stop (no drugs, etc. to speed the labor).

So I headed home to pack my bag, and Bo’s so he could stay at Aunt Erin’s house that night.  Chip met me at home and we headed back to the hospital.  We checked in and were given the same delivery room that Bo was born in (the hospital has been remodeled but the delivery rooms are the same rooms, just nicer) so that was kind of neat.  I had a group-b strep test two weeks prior and the results were positive so they had to administer 2 doses of penicillin (4 hours apart) before they could break my water (so Levi wouldn’t be in danger of getting it).

Around 6 pm they gave me my 2nd dose and the doctor broke my water at 6:05 pm.  Labor progressed very well and without any drug interferences I started pushing at 2:34 am and he was born at 2:39 am (five minutes of pushing YAY!). As you can see from the pictures below Levi was born with a full head of dark brown hair, the Brooks nose and looks very much like Bo did upon arrival.  He is perfectly healthy (praise God) and I’m feeling pretty good too (tired but good).  We came home yesterday (Sunday) morning and today we’re taking it easy.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and well wishes and congratulations!

We visited family this past weekend in Emerald Isle, NC for our cousin Tommy’s wedding. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon after a 4am departure. Bo traveled very well (thanks to the DVD player and his books). We got to stay in a house right on the beach and it was very nice. On Thursday we went to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. Bo loved seeing the turtles and Daddy bought him a small stuffed one that he named Lance and added it to his collection of animals that he has to sleep with every nap and night. For more insight on the name “Lance” and why Bo likes it see the end of this post

Saturday morning we made our final trip down to the ocean for a little play time. Bo had a blast playing in the sand and water. Daddy got creative and built an alligator and a turtle in the sand. Mommy enjoyed picking up pretty seashells.

Saturday evening was the main event (the wedding). It was a lovely, simple ceremony on the beach. The reception afterward was a lot of fun also!

After the wedding we packed up to come home and hit the road around 7am on Sunday. The trip was a lot of fun, but it felt good to get home even if we came home to 100 degree weather
Here’s the scoop on “Lance” the turtle. Bo, as you know, loves VeggieTales and one of the newer videos is Gideon Tuba Warrior. Well the silly song is “Ukulele Karaoke with Bob” and Bo loves the song. Be sure to turn up the volume and listen to the chorus Here’s the video:

You may have noticed that Bo’s Blog (accordingtobo.blogspot.com) has redirected you here - to our new FAMILY blog! Since our family is growing and we’ll have another blogger on our hands we figured we better expand. So here we are at The Brooks Family Blog Please bookmark this new site so you can visit again soon!