New Years Resolutions. Is it too late?

Hmmm.....well I think my 2009 Resolution is to blog more than, oh, once a month. I love reading everyone else's blog, and I don't know why it's so hard for me to update mine. So, since I'm just now setting resolutions, I guess I might as well go ahead and post a few Christmas pics.


One of the highlights of the season this year was the introduction of candy canes. Lilly constantly asks for a "can cane" even a month later. They make quite a mess when eating them, but oh well, they are cute!

One of their shared gifts was this art easel. It's chalkboard on one side, and paper table on the other. They play with it every day.

Santa does not wrap gifts, so they were both excited to see this toy under the tree first thing! So excited they had no interest in unwrapping anything else.

OK, well that's it for now. If anyone out there is actually reading this, give a girl some positive reinforcement and leave a comment!

Our Christmas Card to You

Paul, Jenny, Lilly, Owen & "tator tot" want to wish you a very Merry Christmas! This month has flown by in a way, due to a bout with a horrible stomach flu, and then two weeks later a cold I can't get rid of. I am finally starting to get into the Christmas spririt, and am really looking forward to seeing my babies's faces on Christmas morning. They are amazing kids, and I am so thankful to have them in my life, even on those sub-par days :) They never cease to amaze me by using a word I didn't know they new, or deciding to jump for the first time ever. They are going to start Mother's Day Out the first week of January, and I suspect they are going to have a blast. I think I will too :)

We are looking forward to 2009, and to having a new addition to the family. We have so much to be thankful for, and hope that 2009 brings you and your family health and happiness.

Much love,

The Browns

Happy Halloween!

Well we survived Ike. We did lose power for 5 days and needless to say we were outta there within 24 hours of the no power thing. My friend Michelle was nice enough to put it up for THREE days. We didn't want to wear out our welcome, so then we headed to Dallas for the duration. I wish I had taken a single picture during this, but I didn't.

We're excited to go trick or treating tonight! I'll follow up with some pictures of that by Christmas, I'm sure :)

Until then, enjoy the cute photos below.

Jenny :0




Have you seen my children???



First popsicles!





Um, how come nobody ever told me about ketchup before???



Owen at the zoo. He LOVES fish!


Blackmail photo (note Owen in princess nighty)



Lunch at the Children's Musuem

Where did the time go???

Oops!

Wow, I can't beleive it's been so long. How do these other people post every day???

We had a great time on our vacation. We went to Vermont and upstate New York for a few weeks and got to enjoy the beautiful weather. We got to visit Aunt Patty and cousins Dave and Jeff, and then drove over to the cottage and spent two full weeks there. As always, we were not looking forward to returning to the Texas heat, and I won't even discuss how flying with two 1.5 year olds went, except to say we were "those" people.

The highlight of the trip was when Paul bid, and won, a boat at the Clayton Antique Boat Auction. Our whole trip was actually scheduled to attend this, so it was a good possibility that we were going to be boat owners before leaving. We are now the proud owners of 1961 Lyman, 24.5 feet long, named the "Honeyduck" by it's previous owner. We have to keep the name, otherwise it's bad luck, not to mention a lot of money to have it repainted on the back of the boat. It's a great family boat because it has very high sides so no chance of anyone falling over. We got to spend a lot of time on the boat while we were there, but of course it made leaving even that much harder. In case you were wondering, yes, the boat is staying in New York. So now you're probably thinking "you bought a boat, and you're leaving it in New York, where you only spend two weeks a year?" The answer is yes! We are hoping that Paul's parents will use it as much as they want, and we're also hoping that we eventually figure out a way to spend much more than two weeks up there per year. If we could just figure out a way for Paul not to have to go to work...




Since we've been back, we've been to our 18 month appointment, where the pediatrician said Lilly and Owen are definitely long and lean. They are doing great. Lilly weighs around 23.7 lbs and Owen 24.4 lbs, or something like that.



Lilly is turning into a big girlie-girl. Her favorite activity, besides watchign Elmo, is to play in my closet, trying my shoes on and draping my clothing all over her. She loves to carry a purse around as well. Oh, and one of her newest words is "shoes!"- go figure.

Owen has some words as well, but has quite the animal noise vocabulary and is a pro at pointing to body parts. He is still a total momma's boy and Daddy is being a good sport, but would like some attention too!

We joined the YMCA last week, after I found out they provided free child care while you work out! What rock have I been living under???? The is a great way for us to get out of the house, and Lilly really enjoys her playtime at the wall, and Owen has had a few fits where they had to come get me, but I'm sure this will pass......I hope it will pass. The Y has a great kids pool and playground, so I'm looking forward to getting to do those things as a family on the weekend.

The weather is finally a little more tolerable, so we've been able to start going outside to play some. Lilly is a master at the slide, she just loves it! Mostly, they just love playing in all the dirt, but it's good to be in the fresh air.

I hope everyone is doing great, and I promise to post more often, so please check back.

Jennifer :)

Lots of new things

We have been up to lots lately! For starters, Lilly is (finally) walking at 17 months! She finally got the confidence to let go last week and has been walking like a champ since - yay Lilly! This means she will be sporting many adorable dresses from now... I always felt a little guilty making her crawl in a dress.

Well Paul left the house for a few hours last Sunday. When he came home, he discovered a very definite set of teeth marks on Lilly's arm...now I'm not a forensic scientist, and you'll have to forgive the fuzzy picture where we tried to get a close-up up the bite marks, but we're pretty sure we'ved found the culprit. Not to mention Paul and I don't bite.

4 on top, 3 on bottom

4 on top 3 on bottom

And this is poor Lilly' arm....

The bad thing is when Paul asked when and how it happened...I couldn't really give a definite answer. They scream and meltdown several times a day, so I honestly didn't even notice. Plus, Lilly is a tough gal..not a cryer so I guess she didn't make much ado over it.

This picture of Owen was taken a few days ago...too cute! Daddy says we have to train them young. I got them each their own broom so they could help, but he grabbed the rag all by himself :)

Cinderfella

.

Owen woke in the night early last week with an awful stomach virus. So bad that the pediatrician sent us to the hospital. Luckily they gave him some medicine to stop the vomiting, and we were in and out in a few hours. I actually took him back again two days later, because he still looked horrible, etc. We're happy to report he's back to his normal self, but last week certainly was a rough one on all of us.

Pitiful little dude just laid on his bed the whole time we were there, too weak to do anything else!


Recovering at home.

Luckily, Lilly did not get sick!

Haircuts and more

OOPS.
I thought I would post these pics the day they got their haircut, but I didn't. This is probably why I finally gave up on scrapbooking.

Anyways, Lilly and Owen had their first official haircut, with a real hairdresser. They behaved as you would probably expect 1 years getting a hair cut to behave. Needless to say sitting in a big chair with combs and shiny scissors being taunted in front of you is fairly exciting, until they arebeing withheld from you. But we survived.

Before...

Me helping.

I may be cute, but I'm not gonna like it. (Yay! I can see Lilly's eyes again!)

OWEN

Couldn't leave Owen out.

I can't beleive I paid $12 for his hair to be cut.

She even used clippers on him....don't ask. Probably so the haircut would last longer than 30 seconds and I'd feel like I wasn't getting ripped off.

A special thanks to Aunt Laura for going with and being official photographer. I brought my camera too....um, when did I think I was going to take pictures...when I was holding them forcefully again their will, or fighting them for scissors? Thanks Laura!



I hope to be back soon with our photos from our big week in Dallas last week. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Mission Failed

It's Monday...somehow I always seem to post on Mondays. I'm not sure why that is.


I had a nice weekend out of town with one of my best friends, we've know each other since 4th grade, pretty cool! Anyways, that meant Paul was alone with Lilly and Owen for 32 hours, but who's counting right? He did a great job and they cooperated pretty well for him. Of course he had to show me up by doing all the laundry, making them a huge hot breakfast, etc, etc. I think they all had a good time.


My post title is my story from last week. As any mom who is a nap freak knows, any outings must be carefully choreographed so as not to miss that golden nap window. So last Wednesday I decided to be productive and we left that house at 8 am to go grocery shopping - plenty of time to be back by 10:30, which is our usual nap time , kinda. So....we're in the car and heading home by 9:30. Have I ever mentioned that I live extremely far from any store you actually want to go to...like Target and Kroger? So that means a 20 minute drive each way. You can probably see where this is going...they freaking fell asleep at 9:45 in the car..could not keep them awake for anything! Grrr!!!! The trouble we moms go to, to only have it slap us in the face. But I guess the silver lining is that they actually did take a small nap in the car even once we got home.

Owen is walking everywhere now, and doesn't have to use his arms to steady himself anymore. He will stand while holding a cup and a snack, and you can tell he is so proud. Lilly...my sweet little stubborn girl, still has no interest in walking. We have tried everything including bribery. She stands all day, uses her walker toys all the time, but she still needs that little bit of confidence to let go. I have a feeling when she does, she will never stop, and will be running!

It's 12:15 and they are still sleeping - yay! When they wake, we are off to Chic-Fil-A and Target. Really, what did stay at home moms do before Chic-Fil-A and Target? I feel sorry for them, that's for sure.

Check back next time for first haircut pictures....first hair cuts by professionals that know what they are doing that is. Not haircuts from moms that think "really, they're one, how hard could it be?" We plan on going some day this week.