What does a tree say when he doesn't want to be bothered?

LEAF me alone! :)

Too Cute

This is Molly getting ready for Mother's Day Out this morning. She is finally doing really well there and only gets upset if I'm not the first one there to pick her up. She is getting so big and talking so much! She has started sleeping with a Mickey Mouse doll and has become attached to him. She carries him all around the house and "takes care" of him. She feeds him and kisses him and sets him beside her while she watches cartoons. She tucks him into bed and puts socks on him. She LOVES him! She brings us so much joy! Thank you, God, for our Mollypop.

Bunk Beds

The kids have really been enjoying their new built-in bunk beds...we thought they might be a little hard, but they don't seem to mind.

Just kidding...these are the shelves in our kitchen, looking into the keeping room. We will be doing away with them shortly. They pose quite a climbing threat and no matter what we put on them, they just always look cluttered. We're excited to replace the shelving with a work desk area and more cupboards. We have been meaning to post some interior pictures of the house. It's still in remodel mode, but we're getting there!

Love to you all!

Our Little Artist

We are so proud of Emily! She was honored to have her artwork displayed in the school library the months of November and December. This is a big accomplishment for a first grader! She has always loved to color, paint and draw....she painted bamboo this time and did better than I could! Yay, Emmy! (hers is the painting on the right)

Pumpkins

Above: Finding pumpkins (on Emily's field trip to Lyons Family Farm). The kids also got to pet a bunch of farm animals, play in a corn crib, go through a corn maze, go on a hay ride, play on a big playground and eat pumpkin seeds.
Below: Carving pumpkins, which the next afternoon got filled to the top with dirt and leaves, thanks to Molly and Matthew and their shovels.

Broome Annual Columbus Day Adventure

We celebrate Columbus Day every year by going to a place we've never been before and seeing how much fun we can have there. It's all in the name of exploration and adventure. We began this tradition when Emily was one and it has become our favorite day of the year! This year we traveled to Birmingham, AL to a theme park called Alabama Adventures. The kids had a blast riding rides and playing games. We pretty much had the park to ourselves, as it was off season. We had a great day!

Catching up on all the Fall Fun

Joey and I celebrated our nine year anniversary at the Nashville Zoo, then to dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe...it was a fun day with the kids! We are very blessed! This is a good one of all three of the turkeys (and Joey) on the carousel.

Happy Halloween!

Here are our before and after pictures from tonight. We visited some neighbors and then headed over to a church for trunk-or-treat. Emily was a white cat, Matthew was a power ranger and Molly was a ladybug. They were all so cute and had a great time! We all went out for pizza on our way home and now we're wrapping things up and heading for bed. We were talking about how it's just not the same as going to the Campbell's house, which is what we had done the past few years in Houston. We miss you guys!
They are still eating candy. Joey and I are taking bets on who's going to throw up first! Emily is asking for tylenol....my money's on her!

Ok...one more.

This one is cute, too. You can't tell on here, but Emily's eyes are the bluest blue and Matthew and Molly have the biggest brown eyes I've ever seen! Where'd those come from? Not Joey and I...our eyes are hazel!

Pumkin Patch Pictures

We went to the local farmer's market and got some fun fall pictures taken today. I wanted to post a few of our favorites. We can't believe how much they've grown this past year. We did this last year and Molly was just starting to walk! We enjoyed the beautiful fall weather playing outside today. We are having a little fun with our neighbors....we are trying to decide what color to paint our shutters, so Joey cut a couple pieces of cardboard to the size of our shutters and spray-painted them, and then duct taped them up on the house so that we could decide what we like best. We think it's pretty funny and might leave our "new" cardboard shutters up for a while!

Chuck-E-Cheese

We went to Chuck-E-Cheese on Matthew's birthday to celebrate. Emily's favorite ride was this bike that you pedal up to the ceiling. The kids had a great time and we managed to escape with SOME money left in our pockets. We then proceeded to the shoe store, where Matthew got to buy his most coveted birthday gift....Sketchers Luminators.....courtesy of Nana and Pawpaw. He wears them proudly every day! Thank you to everyone who sent him gifts and cards! He had a great fourth birthday!

Big Pre-Schooler

This one is a little late, but this was Matthew on his first day of pre-school. He LOVES it and is doing great. We are actually considering signing him up for more than two days a week. He seems to really be thriving there and when I ask him; "Matthew, what do you want to do today?" He says; "Mom, all I want to do is go to school." Go figure. I guess Molly and I are boring in comparison.

Football buddies

This is Molly and her boyfriend Tyler Barnett (Julie and Brian's son) eating popcorn and watching a football game a couple weekends ago. The kiddos had a couple of late nights while the four of us tried to get some work done at the house. We'll get there....thanks for your help, guys!

Out Back

I was standing on our back deck when I took this photo of Joey and the kids on the trampoline. I can't tell you what a blessing it is to have this huge yard for the kids to play in. I can let them go out back and tell them to stay in our yard, and they feel like they have all the room in the world to run and play. I have been known to make them race to the tree line and back in the afternoons just to wear them out! We are enjoying all the space so much!
God is so good. The past few years have been challenging. We haven't always been able to see what God was up to, but we've done our best to walk in His will for our family, even when we couldn't understand. When I was sick, Psalm 18 was one of my favorites...I'd like to share some of it with you:

Ps 18: 16-19
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a SPACIOUS PLACE;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Praise God, the giver of all good things.
We love you...
Joey and Mandy

Monkey Business

We have decorated the kids bath upstairs in monkeys and they each have their own monkey towel, which they sport after bathtime....it is too cute to see them all running around in their towels and making monkey sounds after they get done in the tub. They even have tails!

We are still settling in and are happy to have scored some great deals on much-needed furniture at the flea market in Nashville last weekend. Emily is still doing great in school. I am disturbed to report that she has at least five boyfriends. Matthew loves pre-k. He only goes Mon. and Fri. and asks me every other day of the week if he gets to go to school that day. Molly is doing better in MDO, she has stayed the whole four hours the past two days she's gone....progress! Joey and I are getting work done around here when we can. We are all enjoying the beautiful fall weather and are looking forward to fall break next week! We love you and miss you and hold you up in prayer, The Broomes

Moved in!

Ok, so we're moved in but not unpacked. Everything goes so much slower than you expect! Sorry we've been "logged off" but we just got our new keyboard....that's a story for another day!

I wanted to send our updated contact info:

Broomes
131 Hunter Brown Rd.
Huntsville, AL 35806

Our email and cell numbers remain the same.

I will try to post some pictures soon.

Happy belated anniversary to the Maples!
Sus - I am praying for you as you return to work this week. Hang in there, it will get easier!
Melaine - I am praying for you, too, as your girls adjust to daycare....I bet they are doing better already!

Molly is going to MDO twice a week and is hating it....I hope she comes around, too.

Miss everyone and love you bunches!
Mandy, Joey, Emmy, Matthew and Molly

Closing

We are scheduled to close on our new house today at 11am. Please pray that all goes smoothly and that we will be homeowners by lunch time.

The kids seem to be excited, too. Matthew is the only one who is a little sentimental about leaving our rental house. He says he's not leaving and he wants to live here forever! Emily is sad to move away from Zachary...our sweet next door neighbor. The past year has been so fun with him next door. The kids would run outside, climb up on our fence and yell his name...he would then come out and they would scheme about who's house they wanted to go play at - they spent a lot of time together and we will miss him and his family.

The kids are having fun hanging out with Pappy this week while we get lots of stuff done. I have been horrible about taking pictures lately, so I really don't have any new ones to post.

I will post our new contact information after it's official!

Love You! The Broomes

Update and silly gooses

Ok, so Emily ended up getting sick, too, and missed school Thursday and Friday this week. We are on the mend, though. Everyone seems to be healing up and responding to the antibiotic cream. Praise God! Thank you for your prayers and concern. We are hoping to have a quiet weekend here at home, packing up and getting ready for the work ahead at the new house. We are hoping to close next Thursday now, but a lot of things need to fall into place before then. Please pray for Joey and I to keep our eyes on God through the next couple of weeks. If we close next week, we will spend the following week working at the house (tearing down wallpaper, painting, flooring, cleaning, updating light fixtures, etc.) before moving in over labor day weekend. We are anxious to get settled and excited about our new home!

Prayer request

Please pray for Molly and Matthew. They have been diagnosed with impetigo...a skin infection. It looks especially scary on Molly. They are being treated with an antibiotic cream, twice a day. I am worried about it turning into a more serious staph infection, so please pray for peace for Mommy. Emily has avoided it so far but we are keeping an eye on her. Thanks so much! Love to you all!

First Day of School!

Here is our big first grader! The year is off to a good start and we are loving Monrovia Elementary school. Emily already has about seven best friends....Kensi and Avery seem to be on top of the list. She has always been one to befriend everybody, I hope that continues. I also hope that I can adjust to these early mornings. Man, I miss curling up in our jammies and watching sesame street together. She got so big so fast!

Messy girl

Here is our Mollipop, eating a bowl of cherries...what a sticky mess! She LOVED them and even spit the seeds back out. She has been talking more and more lately. She was sad on Monday when both Matthew and Emmy went to school and she was stuck here with Mommy. She kept saying "bye Bubby"..."bye Memmy"...it was pitiful. She was especially mad when we would drive somewhere and she was in the back of the van all alone. I have signed her up for MDO and she starts this Friday. Matthew will be in pre-k and Molly will be in MDO two mornings a week. I plan to shower on those days! :)

Room to Roam

We were at the new house last night and the kids were running around in the front yard....the first picture is of the huge, beautiful oak tree that lines our driveway. We can't wait to move in! Our address, phone number and email address will all be changing in two weeks, so I'll send out our new info when that happens, until then....back to packing!

Slumber Party

So, there are many nights when little people end up in our bed....but this is hilarious. All three if them were in our bed, piled up on top of one another. I love that Matthew's pjs are buttoned wrong and that Molly has her foot hiked up on Emmy. This is one of those precious times when you lay down the frustrations of parenting and bask in the blessings. There are no words to express my gratitude for these three miracles with which God has graced my life.

Who needs teeth?

This is Emmy eating corn on the cob with no front teeth! She has had a great first week of school. She has discovered that first grade is a lot more work than kindergarten and is a little more worn out at the end of the day. God is good and Emily ended up with the teacher we wanted and is in a class with the only other little girl that we knew at her new school.

We are still set to close on the house in two weeks. We are getting excited and packed up! We have loved all the company we've had recently....Katherine, Marianne, Nana, Aunt Hollie, Lanie and Lacie....we are so blessed to have so many visitors in our home. We can't wait to invite you to our new home. More to come....

What is missing in this picture?

I had to get a picture of Emmy with no front teeth. It is ADORABLE! They are already growing in, so this new smile and slight lisp won't last long. Having no front teeth hasn't stopped her from eating corn-on-the-cob this summer, though! I took her back-to-school shopping this evening and we had a blast! She has her orientation this Thursday and then starts next Monday. She is concerned that the work in first grade will be harder and that she won't have naptime anymore....she never actually napped in kindergarten, but she got to "help" her teacher and do fun stuff instead. Plus, we'll actually have homework this year....that should be interesting!

Take me out to the ball game...

We enjoyed a Huntsville Stars baseball game last weekend with our dear friend Katherine who was visiting from Houston. We learned that the kids don't so much care about watching the game as they do about flagging down every boy that walks by with hot dogs, cotton candy, snowcones, popcorn, peanuts and dippin dots...baseball games are EXPENSIVE!

The highlight of the game was when Daddy caught a foul ball without even getting out of his seat! Daddy: next time we need you to catch THREE foul balls...

New House!

We are excited! We have a contract on a new home and are scheduled to close on Sept. 2nd! It's so us...(God knew what He was doing when He thwarted our plans to buy the two other houses we liked.) It sits on two acres, with woods and a creek in the very back. It is 5 bedrooms with an unfinished basement. We won't know what to do with ourselves with all this space! We have a lot of work ahead of us, though, as the home is very outdated....it's mostly cosmetic, except for the kitchen, which we'll be remodeling asap.
We can't wait for visitors!
(sorry to the Van Cises and the Stevensons who recently drove through Huntsville and we weren't able to catch up with you....please come back! ;)
Right now we are praying that the inspection goes well this Thursday.

We are happy to be settling down after the past year of decision-making and uncertainty. Since we are going to be here a while I have subscribed to Southern Living Magazine, perfected my sweet tea recipe and we finally joined our church this morning (Asbury United Methodist Church)!

Love to you from us!
The Broomes

Lazy days

We have had a great summer so far and I can't believe it's going to be coming to an end here in a couple of weeks. I thought I'd give an update of the kiddos (thanks, Melanie for the wonderful idea!)

Emily starts school on Aug. 10th - first grade...WHAT? I need to catch a recent photo of her as she has lost her two front teeth! Emily continues to be a "strong" child. We believe that she actually thinks that she is an adult. She is amazing and challenging and beautiful. I love to watch her take care of Molly.

Matthew is going to be so lost when Emily heads back to school, but I think Molly and he can really play together better this year, so hopefully it won't be so bad. Not sure yet if Matthew is going to do 3 year old pre-k this fall. He is still our lover and comes and climbs in our bed to snuggle almost every morning. He is getting so tall and I can't believe he will be four in a month and a half! He is very sensitive, thoughtful and brilliant. He looks like his Daddy and has a big heart like him, too. He loves to say the blessing for our family at mealtime and we think he may become a meteorologist because he is fascinated with the weather.

Molly is always in the mix. She doesn't want to miss out on anything and thinks she's as big as everyone else...she is hilarious, laid back and has an awesome sense of humor. She lives life out loud and dances and sings to every song she hears. She is addicted to milk in a sippy cup and it's hard to get her to eat real food. She loves her "Memmy" and "Bubby" and is definitely a Daddy's girl. She is nineteen months old already!

Camping Fun

We got to participate in a 4th of July parade. It was a golf-cart decorating competition, and our neighbors let us help decorate theirs and the kids got to ride in the parade with them. We won 3rd place!

Abby and Molly loved waving the red, white and blue during the parade!

Fourth of July Fun

We got to meet up with Aunt Melissa and our niece, Abby (between Matthew and Molly) over the fourth for a camping trip to Jellystone Park in KY. It was a blast! This is a picture of the kids (and Mommy) with Yogi Bear.

More fancy pictures

Sweet Mollipop! She had the best time at the Botanical Gardens! She loves the butterfly house and squeals with delight whenever we go in there. She tries her best to catch them, and the last time we went, one actually landed on her shoulder. The look on her face was priceless!
I love this one of Emily and Matthew. They had the best day together today....a nice break from the fighting. Their favorite part of the garden is the big bugs exhibit. They love petting the turtles and "feeding" the butterflies. They also love playing in the water fountains in the children's garden.

All dressed up...

My good friend Erica took this photo at the Botanical Gardens when she was visiting. She got lots of good pictures, which is a miracle with these three! They look so big!

We are having fun playing in the water out back almost every evening. Nana was here last week helping while Daddy was out of town. Thank you, Nana! We miss you!

This week we will be traveling to Kentucky to meet up with Melissa and Abby for some fourth of July fun at Jellystone Park! Summer is flying by for the Broomes!

Summer Lovin'

Emily found her first love in Florida. She and Sawyer (from Columbus, OH) were inseparable and even got to go to Disney World together. This is them, walking through the park....so sweet! They were the cutest together.

Here's to you, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! We are so blessed to have such an amazing father who loves us so much! Thank you for representing God's heart to us. We love you all the way to the moon and back.
All our hugs and kisses,
Emmy, Matthew and Molly

Happy Half Birthday, Molly!

We got to celebrate Molly's 1 1/2 birthday yesterday! (around here we look for any reason to eat cake!) She was so thrilled that we all sang to her. She is getting so big so fast! She is outgrowing her summer wardrobe already. She is talking a lot these days, and it's sooo cute! She will repeat anything and LOVES to sing. She adores her "Memmy" and "Bubby" and is such a joy in our lives. I don't know what we'd do without our Mollipop. She is a pure gift from God.

Happy Days

Seriously....could the girl be any happier??? She was in heaven when we were at Disney World. She wanted Minnie Mouse ears as her souvenir and she wears them around the house all the time....it's the cutest! She is about to lose a top front tooth, so here's documenting her current smile before it changes again! How is it that we have a first grader?
One of my favorite times of the day is nap time. This picture was taken as Molly and Matthew were snuggling in our bed and getting ready to go to sleep. They love to nap together and during the school year, I would often join them. Now that Emmy's home for the summer, things have changed a little. Matthew naturally wants to be more of a big kid when he's around his older sister. I also find that I have to sneak in my one-on-one time with each of them when I can....so, not so many naps for Mommy. What happened to summers being lazy?

The Happiest Place on Earth

Well, because I enjoy seeing everyone's blogs and because I need to find an effective way of keeping in touch I have decided to try this out. I am hoping that it's as fool-proof as I've heard. Seems ok so far.

We began VBS this morning.....fun and chaos! Gotta love it! The kids are very excited and I am helping out in the nursery with Molly. Matthew and Emily seem to be very comfortable in their own "big kid" classes. I'm sure we'll all be worn out by the end of the week.

The picture above was taken in May. We got to tag along on one of Joey's "work trips" and stopped off at Disney on our way home from Cocoa Beach. It was magical. It was so much fun to watch the kids' faces....especially Emily's during the fireworks show at the castle.

We have decided to settle in here in Huntsville after much prayer and consideration. It is bittersweet as we really love it here and know that God has good things for us here, but we miss our friends in Houston tons! We are looking for a house and hoping to get settled in before the school year starts for Emmy.

Ok, hopefully future posts will be shorter. Miss you, love you!