Peyton peering into a mirrored cabinet destined for the playhouse.

The kids are enjoying being read to by Shirley Doolittle.

Here is the little family with our Vietnamese worker, Chou.

We're still here!

Hi everyone! :) We have been pretty busy lately. Selina turned 4 on October 9th, and we had a fun party for her with some of her little friends. They maimed a big pinata, ate homemade (by daddy) ice cream cake, and had tons of fun running around and being crazy. Selina got lots of play food and dish sets, and a great Little Mermaid play CD player from Uncle Jared! Everything was a big hit. Daddy tried to finish the playhouse in time for the party, and he got just about everything done except the electricity and finish drywall inside. I couldn't believe how much he did in such a short period of time... Two weeks! Wow. The kids love their new house.
Well, we've been throwing around lots of ideas about trying to sell the house again. The market at the moment is disgustingly flooded with houses for sale, so the chances of having an easy and painless sale seem slim. We will try to sell it on our own for a while since we're in no hurry. I can post signs at work (the health club) and in varius community centers. The only issue I'm dealing with is the nightmare of keeping this house in selling shape to show at any moment. That is possibly the worst part of the selling experience for me!!! :)

We are in the middle of Special Meeting week this week. We have lots of workers in town, so enjoying the special gospel meetings and such. Chou, a worker from Vietnam, spoke all night Tuesday night, and we will be having him for dinner tonight. This is very special for us because he knows my Grandpa Gene, who is in Vietnam right now helping with the Lords' work there. He is such an encouragement to the Vietnam workers and friends, and holds a special place in many hearts over there. So I am looking forward to getting to have conversation with Chou, it's such a privalege to have him here just for a short time.

As far as future trips, we are really excited about our upcoming trip to Los Angeles! We will be flying down for the Vietnam Vets' friends' reunion the second weekend of November (8th). It will be so special because Lee's parents Al and Pam will be flying out for the reunion and we will get to spend some time with them! We may take a day to go to a zoo or something kid friendly. It will be the first time in 7 years that I have been to LA. I'm pretty excited, thinking of all the shopping there..... :) .... that I probably won't be able to do... but it's fun to think about. Daydreaming.....

After that trip, work will be busy for me for a couple of weeks until we hop in the car and head up to WA for Thanksgiving week. That will be fun. We will try to do most of the driving at night so the kids can sleep and the trip will go a lot smoother. We will have to procure some books on tape for the trip so that we stay awake.

The week after we get back from WA, Lee is heading to Las Vegas, Sin City, for a business conference. He will get to spend time with Mike, Amanda and Dane while he's there! I am jealous that he gets to do that, but after all the traveling I think we will not be able to afford taking the whole family. Anyway, he will really enjoy seeing them!

Let's see.... and after that, Lee's uncle Lorin Humphrey may be coming out in December to spend some time with us! Wheee! Lots of family in those couple of months. We have to make up for missing our family all year long!

We have a lot to look forward to over the next couple of months. I will try to keep the blog updated with photos!

Lots of love, and I hope you're doing well wherever you are!

Hi!!!

I'm sorry for the lack of postings! It's been over a month since I've posted anything new... so here goes! There are a few from Labor Day when mom was here, and a couple of random pictures from daily life. More to come! I love you all!! Brooke and fam

Peyton is 2!!! Birthday cake #1. :) The second b'day cake was had at a Labor Day picnic with the friends at a park. It was totally last minute, but everyone came b/c nobody had plans. Mom has the pics from that on her camera.

Walking 'round and 'round the house with the umbrella. He got very frusterated every time he tried to go through this doorway because it didn't fit.

Selina and Grandma Bonnie

Selina and Peyton reading books

Mommy "just making sure" that Selina's throat looks okay.

Nurse Selina

A health check by Peyton

Peyton checking Selina's owy tummy

Peyton Stockwell, MD

My crazy kid!!

More crazies

Laughing after all the crazies

Lee with a mohawk!!

Lee and I going on a date

Family trip.....

The family took a spontaneous trip to Vacaville, CA, hometown of...... outlet malls. Anyway, it's pretty close in proximity to Marine World in Vallejo and sh-sh-shopping in Walnut Creek. We vetoed Marine World when we found out they charge upwards of $50 PER PERSON, and instead we went to a family fun park nearby. And of course shopping in Walnut Creek. Heh heh. Wahoo...! It was great. have I mentioned before that I LOVE H&M? Well I do. Love it.

Great weekend... we stayed in a Marriott which (by the way) has the MOST COMFORTABLE beds of any hotel we've ever stayed in. And it was the cheapest of the Marriotts too. Another happy coincidence that happened, the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night so we had to haul the sleepy/scared kids outside in our pj's and stand around waiting for the firemen to come. Something was on fire on the first floor. Anyway, besides the fact that we were exhausted and everything, it worked out well because they comp'ed us the room for both nights!!! So a free stay at Marriott. Totally worth the inconvenience of the fire. :)

The kids loved the mini-buildings around the golf course.

Selina's style of golfing is taking the golf ball, placing it three inches from the hole, and pushing it in. She got a lot of hole-in-ones! Her handicap was way better than ours. What a natural...!

Selina loved the little mini-buildings around the mini-golf course. These were her favorite holes to play. Sometimes she'd play them over and over while she waited for us to finish on the green.

Peyton doing his *gasp*

A great part of car-rides: entertaining yourself by drawing people on your leg. This is Selina's artwork, I just couldn't resist taking a picture.

After golfing, the kids played for a long time in the kid playland. It was enormous, the entire building (two stories) was criss-crossed with climbing tunnels, slides, and jumpy ball areas. It was huge, and a bit intimidating for the kids. Selina kept getting lost up high and we had to go rescue her. (that was kinda fun!)

Camping!

We had a great time camping two weekends ago... our friends Bridge and Nancy and their kidlets, Silver and Kaolin, joined us for three days of fun. We stayed a day longer than planned because we wanted to avoid the high temps in Chico. Chico was supposed to be in the 110's that weekend, so we were really appreciating the mountain temps, which struck into the low 90's at the hottest part of the day. We camped right on the river, and had a very secluded campsite. The last of the sites, really, so nobody really bothered us at all. Once the kids were in bed at night the adults played cards and hooped and hollered and sang very loudly (my ears still hurt... sorry Bridge) :) With the extended stay, we were cutting it pretty close as far as food was concerned... but we made do. Which was pretty fun, actually. I'm proud of us. :) Anyway, lots of fun, and I hope we do it again soon.

Nancy and Bridge, about to take a stroll in the woods

The girls watched Nancy fly-fish

The boys loved throwing rocks into the water

Selina walking across the rocks

Daddy snuggle early in the morning

Peyton eating his "marshmallow on a stick". They thought us adults were enjoying eating them off sticks, they weren't sure why. :)

Selina devouring her "warm" marshmallow!

The kids loved this part of camping!

Lee fished... and fished... and fished....

Peyton giving shmoopie kisses

Looking at chicks

My Princess on the way to meeting one Sunday

Lee and the kids at the fair

Kitty mama with her tiny babies

The kids' first look at the teeny tiny baby kitties (there are 4 there)

Mom requested that we take a family picture, so here's the little fam on the way to Sunday morning meeting this morning. I'm posting both pics so the moms can choose which one they want to use.

Family Photo 2

Lee and Jared having a boy night at home while Jessica and I had a girlie night.

This is me and my good friend Jessica. She works at the club as an instructor.

Date Day

Lee and I had an entire day together last Saturday, which I don't think we've ever done. Since having kids.

We started out with some golf, which was pretty fun. Lee bought me a 1/2 hr lesson with a pro to fine-tune my swing. That was really nice, he gave me some tips that hugley improved my swing. And my confidence, which is always good. So we ended up with an enormous handicap (not telling), and we both scored the same, so there were no winners. It was 107 degrees by the time we got off of the course. Hhhhhhhuuuuhhot. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent in Air Conditioned splendor.

The pro shows how it's done

There it goes! Wait, where's my arm?

We had a fun lunch in the park with Kevin and Rachel and their kids last Sunday.