June is here!

The months seems to be flying by. Can you believe that in June we still are hitting 50's some days? and 40's some nights? This weather is crazy and taking a toll on us. We have all had sore throats and head colds the past two days. Finally it seems to be balancing out in the 70's.

So it's been almost a month since I updated! I didn't even realize it. The kids are doing good. Titan has his 18 month check up here in a couple days. He is saying new words all the time, but being a stubborn little boy when it comes to using them on a regular basis. We bought him a potty because when he goes pee or pooh in his diaper, runs and gets a diaper and wants changed. So we figured it would be worth a try to introduce him to the potty. He isn't getting it just yet. He thinks that as soon as he goes to the bathroom he has to run to the potty instead of right before. So he has not went on it yet. We are leaving it out in case he wants to go, but we're not pushing for it. He has learned to brush his teeth on his own, and loves to do it every morning and night, but he has become stubborn with not letting me help after he "brushes". He thinks he is boss most of the time :). Boys are definitely different to raise then girls!! MaKenzie is doing good. She is going through an all girly girl princess stage. She is in love with the color pink & wants everything she owns to be pink. She will no longer wear anything Cars and says its for boys only. She loves dressing up and being a complete girly girl. She use to be such a tomboy! They have been having several playdates with our next door neighbors two boys, and Arek's friend Jeremy's two girls. The boys are Micah & Jonah. She runs around telling everyone Micah is her boyfriend. They have to give big hugs and kisses when they leave each other. It's adorable at this age :). It won't be so cute in a couple years haha. The girls are Arianna & Peyton. They all have a blast together. Titan adores Peyton and likes bringing her toys to play with. Both of our kids are going to be a handful with their boyfriends & girlfriends when they get older!!

Arek and I are doing good! We are getting ready for my sisters to get here on Friday!! Then my Aunt & Gma will be here June 25th. We are so excited to have family coming up here and showing them around. We have been staying busy on his days off getting the kids out and about enjoying the weather when it's nice. We recently took a trip to Alexandria Bay. We took the kids on a boat ride over to Heart Island, to see Boldt Castle. It was beautiful. The kids loved the boat ride and they love walking around the Castle. Kenzie thought princesses lived there :). Arek and I loved it too. It was such a beautiful day. After we were done at Heart Island, we walked around Alexandria Bay looking at the neat boats and cool shops. We also took the kids to Remington Park on one of his days off. It's here on base. We took them on a peddle boat which Titan didn't like because he had to wear a life vest. Then we took them on a peddle go kart around the park which was a lot of fun. They both loved feeding the ducks! We live in such a small town, but there is so much to do within an hour in every direction! It's neat! We plan on doing a lot more sight seeing and fun stuff when my sisters get here, and when my aunt & gma get here! Arek is preparing to go to the Soldier of the Month board in a couple weeks. I couldn't be more proud of him. Soon after that he will be able to go to the promotion board for his Sgt. He is finally on a regular schedule. He works day shift for June (from 4:30am to 2:30pm) and has Thursday and Friday off. We like having a set schedule! We are waiting to hear about his orders. We will be leaving here between the end of August and the end of November. We are anxious to see when so we can start planning our big move!! It will be here before we know it!!

I have uploaded lots of pictures and videos since my last update!!

(photobucket guest password) brocksguest

I always upload pictures in order, so the newest ones are on the last pages :)

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/?start=0

and videos (newest at the beginning):

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/ViDEOS/

We hope everyone is doing good!!

We love you all,

The Brock Family

Rain rain go away!

We definitely have been getting rain every day for a week and still expected to get more!! Our flowers are finally starting to bloom and the leaves are finally coming back on our trees! We do have nice sun in between the rain though!

Titan picked up some new words this week!! He is finally saying Sissy. MaKenzie loves it. He has said it before but now he really says it and to her! It's adorable. He also learned how to say vitamin (he LOVES taking them in the morning), birdie, and poo poo. We are excited every time he says a new word. It will be neat to be able to have conversations with him. He is a little wrestler this week also. He figured out how to tackle Kenzie and how to play tickle monster. We are trying to catch him doing it on video tape because it has to be the funniest and cutest thing in the world. He gets his handles up like he is going to tickle you, tries to say tickle tickle, squints his face and then attacks!! It is adorable. He is definitely feeling back to normal and is a little rascal! We are happy he isn't feeling sick anymore!! MaKenzie is doing good. She is her normal miss personality self. She likes to let Titan be the trouble maker as she is the little birdie in his ear telling him what to do, and running and laughing. Those two together as a team are a handful! They are so much fun :).

My sisters, Aunt Dot, and Grandma officially have their plane tickets!! We couldn't be more excited to have family coming to visit us. Harley will be here from June 5- June 30th and Porsche will be here June 5- June 13th. Then my Aunt Dot, Grandma & Porsche will be here from June 24th - June 30th. We are planning a trip during that week to North Adams, Mass. to see some of my Grandma's family and where she grew up! Then we might be driving to NYC! It will be exciting and we are definitely looking forward to it!!

Arek and I are doing good! He is currently working mid shifts (8:45pm to 6:00am). We definitely don't like this shift, but thankfully he will be starting Heavy Weapons school on May 11-May 23. Which is normal 9-5 schedule. We also found out he will have to go to WLC training July 14- July 29th and miss his birthday with us. Of course we were very upset, but we will get through it and make the best of his birthday when he finishes it! During WLC he will be on 5 miles away from us, but not allowed to come home or see us. It's definitely going to suck! Other than that, we are just staying busy with the munchkins.

Lots and Lots of new pictures and a couple new videos!

New Pictures:
http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/?start=120

New Videos:
http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/ViDEOS/

Love to all,
The Brock Family

May is here!

I can hardly believe that it is May already. It really just seems like the time is flying by. I am pretty sure the saying goes "April showers bring May flowers", but we are to expect rain for the next week and half! We don't even have any flowers yet! haha.

Titan has'nt had a good weel. He has been very grumpy and not himself. So we had to take him to the doctor for a sick check. He had spring cold, bronchitis and a minor ear infection. No wonder he was so cranky! He had to take a couple different medicines but he is doing much better now. He has learned to climb out of his big boy bed and that has been fun to deal with! We had to get a gate for his door, because we would just wake up and he would be tapping us on the shoulder. It was adorable, but we definitely didn't want him wondering around the house when we weren't even awake!! So we have a gate up and he hates it of course. Last night he kept me up until 2am. He went to bed at 7:30 like normal, but woke up crying at 10:45pm, which he never does. So we tried for a good half hour to get him to lay back down, but it wasn't happening. I ended up staying up with him laying on the couch snuggling, catching up on my shows haha. He just wanted some mommy loving! He laid there with me all the way until 2am cuddled next to me. Then he finally passed out. I think he just had a bad dream and needed some loving :). He has been a little monkey. We can't keep him off climbing things for more than a minute. It is definitely different raising a boy then raising a girl!! haha. He is going to be a little trouble maker like his daddy! MaKenzie is doing good and somehow avoided the spring cold! She had some bad allergies for a couple days, along with me, but they finally passed. She is little miss personality. I have never seen a three year old with such an opinion, spunk, and personality! Arek and I could listen to her talk and her stories all day long. She is the greatest to have a conversation with, kids definitely say the funniest things!! Since Titan has been sick she is all about making sure he is okay. She gives him hugs and kisses and helps with his medicine. She makes a bed for them on the floor and just snuggles with him. She wishes that she can pick him up and hold him like mommy and daddy is what she tells us all the time :). She always says when I get bigger I'm going to do this and that it's cute! Titan is now 25 pounds!! & Kenzie is 34lbs!!

Arek and I are doing good. Arek got his dream system(for the tahoe) he has been waiting for the past five years. It was suppose to be a birthday present for him, but I ended up agreeing to get it early for him :). It has a nice DVD player and the rest of the crap he wanted haha. It makes him happy so it was worth it! He just finished Customs training. Now he is back to working the roads for another week and then does Heavy Weapons training. He is very excited about that class! I am doing good. I attempted the Master Cleanse Diet, very hard by the way! I did it with our neighbor Kevin. We were going for 7-10 days, but cracked on day four haha. It was hard, but it was nice while it lasted. We both ended up losing four pounds. We wish we could have stuck it out though!! We had two days in the 80's here last week, so we made sure we took the kids out and let them play in water! We had a car wash bbq with a bunch of people on one of the days and it was a blast. Arek had to go to work after an hour, but I stayed with the kids and they loved the water. Titan got scared a couple times of the sprinkler, but MaKenzie could have played out there all night! We wish the 80 degrees would come back already!!

We are getting excited for next month! We have some family coming out and can't wait! My sisters are coming out on June 6th. Harley is staying the whole month of June and Porsche is going back June 13th. Then towards the end of June my Grandma, Aunt Dot, & Uncle Tad are planning on coming for a little while. It will be nice! We are taking Kenzie, Titan & Harley to Virginia in the middle of the month. We are going to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA! Two great parks that are a part of the here's to the heroe's program! We are all pretty excited!

We hope everyone else is doing good! I have lots of new pictures and a couple new videos!!

Pictures:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/?start=160

Videos:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/ViDEOS/

Love to all,

The Brock Family :)

Spring is around the corner!

We are suppose to hit seventy degrees by the end of this month and we couldn't be more excited!! Winters are so long here at Fort Drum!! haha. We have forgot what it is like to be able to go outside without a jacket or hoodie :). We have had some nice days in the 60's and we always take the kids to the park or let them play outside. They love being outdoors, so when it rains they don't like it!

Easter here was great. We decorated eggs the day before Easter. Both of the kids helped me boil them, then MaKenzie started dying the eggs while Titan was more interested in coloring on them. Finally Titan wanted to try out dipping them in the dye and we couldn't get him to stop. He loved it. MaKenzie loved mixing all the colors and coloring on them as well. She waned to make sure that they were perfect for the Easter bunny. The kids were precious to watch on their little egg hunt to their Easter baskets. Titan did a great job and was very into finding eggs and putting them in his bucket. MaKenzie loved every second of it. The Easter bunny spoiled them with something they have both been wanting for a long time! Everytime we go to wal-mart MaKenzie asked to look at this tricycle and rides it up and down the isle. We knew we had to get it for her, since she waited so patiently for it. Titan always sits in MaKenzie's princess chair and we thought it was about time we get him a cars one he can sit in. Daddy had to go to work that afternoon, but we had a great morning with him and spent the rest of the day playing out back or playing inside with the empty eggs! Who knew empty eggs would be so entertaining!! haha.

MaKenzie and Titan have been good. They are both learning new things every day. MaKenzie officially knows more spanish and chinese then Arek and I both. She watches Dora the Explorer and Ni Hao Kai-Lan every chance that she gets and learns a lot about those languages from that show. It's amazing. She is the best little helper in the world. She loves helping clean up and more than anything, taking care of her brother. She helps me pick out clothes for him and change his diaper. She always is right by his side if he cries asking "What's wrong Titan, sissy is right here". Titan got sick the other night and threw up while Arek was working so I asked if she could watch him in his bed while I clean up the mess. When I came back from the bathroom she was sitting next to his bed telling him how he will feel better in the morning and she hates throwing up to, and its okay Titan sissy will make sure you feel better. It has to be the most precious thing in the world. Titan is learning new words all the time. He loves saying "night night" and he says bye bye, new things we catch him saying all the time. He loves to mock us. One of these days I swear he is just going to start talking in sentences. He has became a big daddy's boy lately. Whenever Arek leaves for work MaKenzie doesn't cry anymore she gives him a big hug and kiss and Titan cries at his feet. It's a great feeling that he has such a bond with Daddy after being deployed for 15 months and only seeing him via web cam and talking on the phone. Both of the kids love being outside. Whenever we have a nice day out, I could just leave the back door open and they would play outside all day long. We wish the rain would go away and the 70 degree weather would hurry up and get here :)!!

Arek and I are doing good. He has loved working patrol the last two weeks. He deals with some interesting cases and people, but he loves what he does!! Last night I couldn't have been more thankful for our MP's. Arek was at work and the kids were asleep, it was about 9:30 here. I was watching One Tree Hill and it was on commercial, so I went in the kitchen for water when I hear Kera barking at the front door, I go to yell at her to be quiet when I see and hear someone trying to open it. My heart sank and I panicked. I quickly turned on some lights and turned on the patio light. The yellow ribbon we have on our door was blocking the peep hole so I couldn't see out right when I turned on the patio light the screen door slammed shut and I saw someone running away. I tried calling Arek but couldn't even get my fingers to dial the correct number, he had no service so I called our neighbors and Kevin came right over with his flash light, hand cuffs and baton. Arek called right back and I barely told him what happened and he was here with at least 5 cop cars before I knew it. I definitely felt safe and protected. I just wish they could have seen someone to put my mind at ease a little more. Now Arek is off for the next two nights thank god. I couldn't be more thankful for Kera barking and letting me know someone was at the front door and that they successfully didn't get into the house!! Other than that, we have been good!! Kera is now 14 weeks and is learning sit and stay so well. She is a great pup and finally getting along with Lola. She always wants to play with Lola, but Lola is a little feisty. Now they lay together and get Lola doesn't freak out around her!!

Lots and lots of new pictures and videos posted!!

New Pictures:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/?start=40

Easter Pictures:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/HOLiDAYS-SPECiAL%20DAYS/EASTER%20041209/

Videos:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/ViDEOS/

Love to all,

The Brock Family!

Easter is almost here!

What a busy week for us! Arek finished MPCC and officially starts working as a policeman today. He got pepper sprayed the last day of his school. He hated it of course, but did good! He is happy it is over and excited to start working the roads. We have to get used to his schedule changing. The schedules change every 15 days. So far his first schedule doesn't look too bad. He works days today-Thursday and swings Friday-Sunday then is off with us Monday-Wednesday! He works on Easter Sunday, which sucks but not until 12:30 so we will be able to celebrate with the kids in the morning!!

We went on our Marriage Retreat with his company on Thursday-Saturday. Our drive up there was nice. The scenery was beautiful, the kids laughed and sang the whole way there. It was a beautiful day out! As part of the marriage retreat you have to take classes about marriage and coming home from deployment. So we took the kids swimming before dinner. Then our first class was at 6pm. We took them down to daycare and it was hard at first! Once we finally left the room though they did great. Titan took a minute to settle, but when he did he played and had a great time. We peeked in on them on our break at 7pm and they were playing and having fun. Then when we picked them up at 8pm they were holding each other snuggling almost asleep. It was the cutest thing ever. We decided to take the pup and kids on a walk down main street since it was still so nice out. We got to bring Kera with us. The only thing we had to pay for during the trip, but it was only $75 and worth it! That is all we had to pay for the whole trip. The Army paid for the hotel, food and even us driving up there plus some!! On Friday they had to go to day care again for three hours and they did great. We were done by noon and ate lunch, walked main street, went bowling, hung out, ate dinner, went swimming, and played cranium with five other couples during the night. We had a great time! The kids passed out the whole way home, and so did I :). It was a great mini vacation and we had a lot of fun. We even enjoyed the classes. They were interesting!

On Sunday we took the kids to get their Easter/Spring pictures taken. They did a great job, and all of them turned out amazing. We ordered a bunch and will be sending them out in two weeks when we get them back! So please reply to this email update with your addresses :). After their pictures we had a Batallion Easter Party to go to. MaKenzie and Titan both loved hunting for Easter eggs. Titan still did not want anything to do with the Easter Bunny, but MaKenzie loved him. Yesterday we relaxed with Daddy all day before he had to start working the roads for the next six days today. We were thankful for our 5 day weekend with him!!

The munchkins are doing good! Titan slept in his big boy bed for the first time on Saturday night. He cried for about 5 minutes, but got over it right away and fell asleep for the whole night. Now he just goes to bed like normal and sleeps great through the night still! His four teeth that have been taking forever to come in have finally popped through and he looks like he has a mouth full of teeth. MaKenzie is doing great and now wants to start going to school! She loved daycare even though she got nervous at first. She is very anxious and excited for the Easter bunny to come to her house!

The weather here has been crazy. We have had 60 degree weather one day, and snow the next!! I am looking out my window this morning and see a white blanket all over. It's APRIL!! haha. It's beautiful though and our gross grass has turned into green grass again, finally. It is looking so nice out! If only the sun would stay out and stay above 60 degrees!! Arek and I are doing good! He is excited to be working as a policeman! I am excited to here about all the stuff he will do each day :). I am starting my spring cleaning today!! FUN FUN :). Kera is now 12 weeks old! She is getting so big, so fast! She is doing great with potty training. She is also doing great with being kennel trained. She has learned her first trick that Arek and Kenzie have been teaching her which is sit! We are all doing good!!

I have a ton of pictures!!

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/

Easter/Spring pictures:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/FAMiLY%20PHOTO%20SHOOTS/EASTER%20PICTURES%20040509/

Our Trip to Lake Placid:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/TRiPS/LAKE%20PLACID%20040209%20TO%20040409/

Videos:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/ViDEOS/

We hope everyone else is doing good!! Please send me your addresses so I can send you pictures of the kids when we get them next week!! Thank you :)

Love to all,

The Brock Family!

We're on PCS orders!!

So I have to start with the most exciting news of all. We are on PCS orders to move to Fort Huachuca, Arizona no later then December 10th. We have been researching lots of bases and finally decided on Fort Huachuca since Fort Carson was not open. It looks like a beautiful base and has a lot of site seeing and beautiful towns/cities all around it. We will also only be seven hours away from Las Vegas! We will be able to visit and have family visit more often. They have lots of new housing and it looks beautiful. We couldn't be more excited! We love being out of Las Vegas and getting to expierence so many different towns and traveling all over the United States!!

Other than that, nothing much new going on. The kids are doing good. Titan is becoming even more friendly with the puppy and doesn't freak out anymore. He is out of his high chair and now sitting in a big boy booster seat at the table with us. He loves it! He loves playing outside when the weather is actually not freezing. He is so active and full of energy. It's a lot of fun watching him and MaKenzie play together. MaKenzie is smitten with the puppy and loves taking her on walks. She just got a new car that she is in love with. Her new favorite thing is riding it around the neighborhood. She gives Titan rides in it and he loves it.

Arek and I are doing good! He is almost done with his MPCC classes to start working the roads! He is doing great in it and will complete it on Friday! He was selected to take a heavy duty weapon course in a couple weeks and he is excited about it. I am doing good, love being a SAHM more than anything, love having daddy home, and in our routine of things! We are going to a Marriage Retreat that Arek's company is hosting next weekend. It's at High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid. The hotel and area is beautiful. Check out the hotel! http://highpeaksresort-px.trvlclick.com/ . All the rooms they booked are lake view. We're excited to go on another mini vacation!!

I uploaded lots of new pictures!

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/?start=240

We hope everyone else is doing good!!

Love to all,

The Brock Family :)

Getting back into routine!

We enjoyed our last week and half here in New York before Arek had to go back to work on Monday. A few days after being home from our vacation.. we had to drive down to Syracuse and pick up our new baby girl, Kera Bear Brock! She was so big at only 7 weeks old! MaKenzie and Titan were so excited to finally meet her. MaKenzie didn't want to let her go! While Titan didn't want the pup to touch him, but he wanted to pet her! It was adorable. The car ride home was good. The first night was good too. She didn't really whine, she pee'd and pooh'd on her pads. During the week she had bad diaherra which made a mess of her bed area every night. Now that finally passed and she has been good! She pee's and pooh's outside, and during the night she pee's on her pad! Titan is getting used to her. He spots Kera and says "pup!" and gets all excited, but the minute Kera tries playing with him.. he screams! haha. He's not quite sure how to handle it. He is getting used to her though and lets her sit by him, he pets her and only freaks out if Kera is running towards him. MaKenzie is absolutely in love with Kera. They snuggle and play together all day long. Kenzie helps me take her outside and give her treats and says "good girl kera!" when she goes potty outside. It's priceless :). Arek and I love her! We are so excited to watch her grow and train her. She is now 8 1/2 weeks old and getting so big! When she first got her, she had one ear up and one ear flopped down. Now both of her ears are up! Kera has a boyfriend that the Singhs got just a few days after us! His name is Zues Oso(bear in spanish) Singh. They love playing together. Zues even escaped out of their backyard a couple days ago and came to our door crying, I let him in and he immediately ran to Kera and started playing. He's a smart dog remembering where we live!

Titan and MaKenzie finally got over their little travel colds and allergies. Kenzie mainly just had allergies. She sneezed, coughed and had a runny nose, but Titan had all of the above and wouldn't eat anything. He also was very quiet. Now he is eating everything in sight again and babbling all the time. We are very happy he is back to normal and feeling better! They are both doing good! Titan has became such a daddy's boy these last couple of weeks. He is very clingy to him and fights with Kenzie over who can sit with him or who he picks up! Arek started work on Monday and both the kids miss him very much! The second Titan hears the garage door he runs saying Da-Da and Kenzie runs right into his arms! Then the first half hour he is home they just wrestle and play with him! We hate that Daddy hate to go back to work, but it sure beats him going to Iraq. We cherish him coming home after work every night and spending the weekends with him!!!!!

The weather here has been nice. No snow and some rain. We have been in the 40's most of the week and loving it. We bought a grill and had a BBQ with Arek's friends on Sunday before they had to go back to work. We were all outside with our t-shirts on! haha. Crazy how 40 degree weather is so nice to us! Arek and I are doing good. We celebrated our two year wedding anniversary on March 3rd! Arek bought me beautiful pink roses and a new wedding ring(since I lost the diamond in my original one). I love it! It resembles my other one so much and it is perfect! As if that wasn't a good enough anniversary present he surprised me with a BEAUTIFUL coach purse a couple days later on his lunch break! It was sweet :) and he has good taste!! It was a great wedding anniversary and I look forward to the lifetime of them to come :).
Most of you heard, he did the blazzin' challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings last night. We went there with his whole platoon! Arek, his friends Kevin and Hunter all tried the Blazzin' Challenge. We must have had the whole restaurant watching them :). Arek of course made it look like it was easy :). The BWW Blazzin' Challenge is you have to eat 12 of their wings with blazzin' sauce in under 6 minutes with no drink, ranch, celery or anything else. You also have to make sure you get every part of meat off of the bones. Arek did it in 3min. 21sec.! His friend Kevin did it in 5 1/2min. and Hunter came close but didn't make it! It was a fun night! Now we get a three day weekend!!

I posted lots of new pictures on our photobucket! We hope everyone else is doing good!!

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/shelbyandarek12/0UR%20FAMiLY/

Love to all,

The Brock Family :)