Janie's announcement

The picture was taken by my dear friend Cosette (who also happens to be a photographer with Still Life Studios). We love it!

Good Car For Sale - SOLD!

Introducing Clarence, our trusty 2004 Chevy Malibu Classic. This reliable car has been a blessing to us for nearly five years, and now that we have outgrown him, we feel it is time to pass the blessing on to someone else. We're only listing it on our blog right now, so our friends and family have a chance at it first.

Details:
2.2 L 4-cyl engine, automatic transmission, cold a/c, fully automatic headlights, power windows and door locks, remote entry, AM/FM radio, CD player, new battery.

We bought this car with about 23,000 miles on it, and it now has almost 76,500 miles and gets (we've calculated) roughly 24 mpg city and closer to 29-30 mpg highway.

John has taken great care of this car, and changed the oil every 3,000 miles/3 months, rotated the tires, etc. The last oil change was just a couple of weeks ago. He has also cleaned it very thoroughly and it is so clean, we don't think you'd be able to find a cleaner used car anywhere. It shines!

Happy Day!

My (Anna's) favorite big brother, Tyler, got married this morning to his sweetheart, the lovely Samantha Wilcox, in the Orlando Florida Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We are so happy for them! For more information and lots of cute pictures, go here:

http://stricklandclan.com/

We love you, Tyler and Sam! We hope you have a perfect day. We are sad we couldn't come, but we are there in spirit, and we are so excited to see you next week. May God be with you as you begin your eternal family.

Sweet Janie Rose

Our sweet baby Janie is one month old today! She has grown quite a bit, and has started having more awake time and watching the world around her with wide eyes. And she has slept in her crib for two nights now! She still wakes up to eat, but she doesn't wake up every time we lay her down, which is an improvement. Her hair is still light brown, but the roots are coming in blond, like her brothers'. And so far her eyes are blue. She has a beautiful smile and she's just learning to use it on purpose, though she hasn't done it very much yet. We are looking forward to getting to know her better and all the fun times ahead. And we love her very much already.

These are some of my favorite pictures of her so far. You can see how much her brothers adore her. They are such sweet big brothers, and she is blessed to have them. I know they'll be a blessing to her throughout her life, as she will be to them. Isn't family the greatest? I love it.

This was her brothers' doing. Aren't they sweet? They love to take care of her...

...and look at her...

...and look at her some more, and hold her hand.

We love you baby Janie!

It's a Girl!

We knew that, but we're still so excited to welcome precious little Janie Rose Brooksby to our home and to our hearts. She was born on Saturday, 25 July 2009, at 5:42 pm. She was 6 lbs 6 oz. and 20 inches long. She's beautiful! We even have pictures to prove it.

Anna and Janie are both doing fine. Anna's happy to be home, and as far as we can tell, Janie is too. She hasn't complained about it yet.