Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great weekend... but it didn't feel long enough!

Saturday we just hung out and got some things done around the house. We are lucky enough to have lots of wall space, so we hung several of my grandpas paintings.

Max is trying to suck his thumb... but he hasn't wuite managed to separate it from the rest of his hand! He gets his entire hand in his mouth... it's crazy!

























Sunday we had some friends over for games. We had a great time! Nadine and Mahlon came over with their two kids, Naia (3 years old) and Josephine (1 month old), Bauer came over with Adam (10 years old... I think) and Chaos and Dave came down from Seattle with Fiona (6 months old) and their dog Jezabel to stay the night. It was a fun group! Games go a lot slower with all the breaks to change diapers, help toddlers, etc!
















Monday morning Fiona and Max hung out on the floor for awhile, Fiona just might grow up to be a massage therapist from the way she was patting down Max!














It was really fun to see what lies ahead for Max in only a few months, Fiona is sitting up, smiling ALL the time, rolling over, etc. But then again, she clearly is an overachiever, so maybe Max won't be doing any of those things! Well, he already smiles quite a bit, so we're working on that one!

And here's a picture of Ron and Max out in the backyard. Have I mentioned that Ron is already obsessed with lawn care? Gotta keep up with the Joneses, I guess! So Ron was checking out the seeds that he put down last week, and shoing Max the importance of fertilization

Friday, May 26, 2006

Recent Photos

Here are some pictures from the last week or so- Max sure is lucky to have such a great family- his grandparents love him so much!


Sleepy mornings with Grandmammi.


Thank goodness for great-grandmas help with laundry! Can you spot Max in the midst of this mess???
Bath time!

Friday, May 19, 2006

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our five year wedding anniversary. What an amazing 5 years it's been! It seems like it's gone by so quickly, but then again, we have done so much in the 5 years that it also feels longer.

Our wedding day was so beautiful- and fun! At that time we were living in Seattle, and thewedding was ina beautiful little town called Fall City, about 30 minutes from Seattle. Ron and I had been together for 7 years before getting married. We have never been really affectionate in public, we'd been fairly private with our feelings until that day. It was really great to be surrounded by our family and friends and publicly share our vows- which we wrote ourselves. I don't think either of us had ever been happier than we were on our wedding day!





Our honeymoon was 8 weeks of backpacking through Europe. What an incredible experience! We went to Belgium, England, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Wales, and France. We definately caught the travel bug and have been wanting to go back ever since!









When we got back, Ron applied to grad school. When he was accepted to UCDavis Graduate School of Management, we moved down to California. We made some great friends through the GSM.

















I quickly got involved in the Sacramento Valley chapter of RID, and served on the board for 3 of the 4 years we were there. I was so fortunate to not only be involved in the interpreting community, but also to make such wonderful friends!






During these 5 years Ron and I took trips to Texas to visit the cousins and their kids...














to Colorado for me to take the RID certification tests and visit with family and my friend Lauren...













and spent a week in Martha's Vineyard for Dave and Chaos' wedding.






Ron graduated after 2 years, and got a job with HP (where he had interned the year before). Before he started full time work, we decided to take another trip and spent 5 weeks in SE Asia. A few days in Hong Kong, a quick jaunt to Cambodia, and most of our time in Thailand. We went to 2 Schools for the Deaf, one in Cambodia, the other in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We had several lazy days on the beach, adventures in moped riding, and crazy tuk tuk rides. We came back with a new outlook on life- seeing true poverty in a foreigh country- especially Cambodia where the prior development that the country had was destroyed by the Pol Pot regime. It was like being in a third world country- and the people were so nice, we really learned a lot.

When we came back we moved to Rocklin to be closer to HP. A year later we decided to try to start a family. We got pregnant right away, and started thinking seriously about where we wanted to raise a child. At that time, my parents were ready to move as well. They wanted to be closer to us, now that a grandchild was on the way! Ron and I missed the Northwest, and my dad has always wanted to move back to Oregon (where he went to school) so we decided to head on up here and relocate the family. It didn't hurt that the housing costs up here were so much lower than in California! Also, we wanted to becloser to Rons parents so they could watch Max grow up. We got Gramaw (spelled that way on purpose- that's how my brother and I thought it was spelled growing up- it stuck!) to move up here, too. It felt like a caravan- the Brooks/Purvis family migration!

When we arrived we set out to buy our first home. 10 days after moving in, Max was born! Many people buy homes and start a family much younger than us (we're both 32) but we decided to take our time and travel a bit before settling down. We are so glad we did, what great adventures we've had! That's not to say we aren't going to travel now with kids, but the mortgage payment hinders things a bit! We are already thinking about when our kid(s?) will be old enough for us to head abroad again.





So here we are, five years later and in our own house with a cool little baby, and as mushy as it sounds, each adventure, from travel to baby, makes us learn new things about each other, and find new things to love about each other. Happy Anniversary to us!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Two Months Old!

Max is 2 months old today... man, time flies!


Two minutes old-




Two hours old-

Two days old-

Two weeks old-

Today! Two months old-

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Happy Mothers' Day!

What an honor it is to be joining all the fabulous moms out there and celebrating my first Mothers' Day! I didn't realize how excited I would be for today. I think it's because the last 8 weeks have been all about being a mom- so much responsability, overwhelming love, pride, and joy. Cheers to all you moms out there!

Yesterday we drove up to Seattle for lunch with Grandma and Gradpa Blaker (Rons parents).
This morning I got breakfast in bed- pancakes with strawberries and eggs. Ron brought me some Claritea in a cool photo mug with a collage of Max photos on it. Something for me to bring with me on the evenings I am working. It's perfect! Then the 3 of us lazed in bed making each other laugh. Max is so smily in the mornings! It is fun to make him smile his big ol' grin. His facial expressions crack us up. He's better than TV.

Grandma and Grandpa Brooks came over for a quick visit, and Max and I brough over some flowers and photos to Great Grandma Brooks ("Just call me Great" she says!)

Then Ron, Max and I went for a drive throught the countryside, through orchards and farms and ended up at a park where we had a short walk and a little mini-picnic.

Then back to the house to laze around for the rest of the afternoon. What a perfect day!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Sunny Days

The weather here is just beautiful! It definately makes for nice outside time.















And Happy Birthday Grandpa! Cinco de Mayo was my dads birthday, he came over and visited with Max for a bit.














And in honor of the San Jose Sharks doing so well in the playoffs, here's a picture I took of Max watching a hockey game a few weeks ago. Now, I don't normally prop him up in front of the TV like this (although he is fascinated by it!) but his Uncle Larry is in a band with one of the Sharks (Mark Smith) so the family has been on a sort of hockey kick... even my Gramaw is watching hockey! The band (Talking Trees) is fairly new, and has even been mentioned on ESPN during the game. All very exciting for them. Anyhow, Uncle Larry was coming for a visit so I clicked this pic of Max watching the Sharks game.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Smile for the Camera... Day 2

Yesterday Max was quite smily. I brought the camera with me all morning in hopes to catch a shot of his grin. Here is how the morning progressed.

Waiting for me to get him into the bath with me. I don't think he liked the bug on the mobile!

Just after he got a massage and got dressed. I don't think he's happy about nap time!
Getting ready for a nap with mama... it took him awhile to settle down! He was practicing his breakdancing moves (the same ones I think he was doing in my belly during the last 2 months of pregnancy)!

No paparazzi, please!Settling down...Is that a grin?No doubt about it! How could you not just fall in love with that face!