Jax turned 8 this Summer!

My Sweet Baby James turned 8 this summer! I love this kid so much and can't believe how he is growing. Jax is such a good brother. He loves to play games of ANY kind! This summer he beat us all many times at 10,000 (a dice game-a big family tradition in Dax's family) & MarioKart! He is become quite the little reader & loves surfing the net! He still throws off his shoes & shirt as soon as he is inside the front door....many times he is down to his briefs ;-) He melts my heart with his big brown eyes. He looks up to his Daddy. I love listening to my three men sit and talk about stats & scores and other guy things. I am so excited to watch and participate in all the exciting adventures this cool kids has to look forward to in the future!

All Jax wanted to do for his birthday was go to the movies and see the new Karate Kid! We let him bring 2 friends and his brother...no girls per his request! It really was a blast & a great movie. Check out the dirt cake I made and put in a bait bucket! He was sooooo excited about this cake- Score for Mommy :-)

Because I'm awake!

I thought I would give a quick update because I am awake here in the early morning hours! Why am I awake you wonder.... well it just occurred to me that it is incredible DUMB for a person who often struggles with insomnia to take a pain reliever that includes caffeine just before bed. Caffeine hasn't ever bothered me this much before.... REALLY!!!!! As little as two weeks ago, I was downing close to a 12 pack of diet coke a day. Well, for some reason I decided to give up diet coke. The first couple of days the headache was terrible; but, then I felt pretty good. HA... now I am up all night feeling incredibly jittery... Good news, NO PAIN ;-)

My first week back went really great! I love all my teachers & the subject matter. The work load as always seems very overwhelming; but, I know that it is totally possible. It seems like there is a real light at the end of the tunnel just three full semester till I start student teaching. WOW, this really excites me! This year I have also taken over the position of president for Aggie Storytelling Association. I am really looking forward to what the year hold for me with this position.

Well, isn't it a RULE that children are supposed to get sick at the worst time possible!?! Monday morning 3 of the 4 "little"brooks were ill! Yikes, what to do? Luckily, Dax worked from home and was able to keep them comfortable. Thankfully, the rest of the week my sister & neighbor helped out. Poor Emma was out sick ALL week! Her asthma was giving us a run for our money... all is better now and she is back on all her preventatives early this Fall.

Here are some pictures to catching up on some of our summer fun! We spent TONS of time trying to beat the heat in the pool. August was so hot... we hardly left the house during daylight hours!