Christmas at the Brown House

So it's Christmas time at the Brown House! Of course, Hank is confused as to why it isn't snowing yet. Because in his mind, Christmas=winter=snow. He keeps asking if it will be snowing in Phoenix when we go to Nana and Papa's for Christmas. It's hard to explain to a 3 year old why it won't be snowing in Phoenix....

Anyway, we did actually wake up one morning with a skiff of snow on the ground. And when Hank ran to look out the winter, he declared, "Now its wintertime!" The world is very black and white to a 3 year old.

So as we got ready for the Christmas season, it was like being a kid again. Christmas is so much more fun now that there are kids to celebrate it! Hank is very excited about Santa and he keeps telling me that its very important to be good so Santa will come. This is a great parenting tool! I'm just concerned what we'll do when Christmas is over.

So we put up an advent calendar, which is great because Hank is learning all his numbers and the calendar. Martha spoke to me and I made it myself by putting little toys and candies into gift card boxes, hot gluing them to clothespins and then writing the day of the month on the gift tag and clipping them onto a ribbon suspended from a Santa hat. That way Hank knows how many days until Christmas.

We also put up the tree, which Hank helped me decorate. I decided to play it safe and put the tree up on a table out of Merli reach. The decorating was a little harrowing since we have terrazzo floors (the hardest material known to mankind) and so everytime Hank dropped an ornament, it shattered into a million pieces. After losing 4 ornaments, we padded the floor with a blanket until decorating was complete. So tree complete, I made a few wreaths for above the fire place, the front door, and the window over the kitchen sink. But, I digress. This isn't a decorating blog, but a Hank and Merli blog.





Then Hank and I made Christmas cookies and decorated them with icing and sprinkles. Hank was good at putting on the sprinkles. He was also good at eating the cookies....







Merli is all over the place now. Crawling, pulling up, and getting mad when we take dangerous things away from her. She also just entered the stage where she puts absolutely everything she finds into her mouth. Let the fun begin.....


I'll be updating the blog on Friday, after Hank's Christmas program at school. Should be good. I think they're singing some songs. I'll get video. And then after that, it's off to Nana and Papa's for Christmas! Can't wait to see all the family!

BMX Pro!

So Aunt Laurie is going to be thrilled with this post! Hank is so good and can go so fast on his like-a-bike that he started doing tricks! Here is some video.

Halloween Weekend!

Well, except for the fact that Jason was working, we had a great Halloween weekend in Acadiana! We knocked out our trick or treating nice and early on Saturday and attended a Halloween festival in a city park called Vermillionville that is a Cajun version of Williamsburg. It is laid out the way an acadian village would have been in the late 1700's. It's really pretty and set up on the banks of the Bayou Vermillion. Anyway, they had games and a costume contest (which we did not win- can you believe it? What's wrong with these people?!) and trick or treating in all the restored old homes, school, and church. It was really neat. Curious George, Georgette, and the Man (Mommy) in the yellow hat had a great time.
Some pics.....

Yes that is Nemo with  us. Nemo goes home with someone in Hank's class every weekend and we have to write in a journal all the great things we did with him. So the pumpkin hat that I made for the Teddy Bear Parade got put to use. Nemo was a pumpkin.

From left to right: Curious George, The Mommy in the Yellow Hat ( except that the hat is sitting on the stroller- oops), and Curious Georgette

Bobbing for apples- yes the age old Halloween game, except that in this germ phobic world, you don't dunk your head anymore, you try to pinch the stem with a clothespin!

Swinging from the Church Bell like a good monkey! Curious George would be proud.

Anyway, after the trick or treating, we went home and carved our pumpkins. Yes, I realize we left this to the very last minute, but at least we got them done! Yes, impressive, I know!

                                                           See? Even Nemo helped!

                                        OOOOOOHHHHHAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!!

Goin' Fishin'

So it's been raining for weeks here in Louisiana. And, not the kind of drizzling, overcast rain that we're used to from Oregon. We've been having huge thunder and lightning storms that just dump an incredible amount of water down for hours. Roads get completely flooded out and you literally can't go anywhere. They cancel after school activities and entire festivals during the weekend. One day, Hank was crawling up the walls because we'd been stuck inside for a few days and I finally had had enough. So Jason and Hank donned their rain gear and Jason rigged up the fishing rods and they went fishing! Right in the backyard! It was a good lesson and Hank's cast wasn't too shabby.

Merli and her new teeth

Here's a funny video of Merli. She has two teeth coming in and she constantly slurps her tongue around her mouth to feel them. It's very funny.

Boo at the Zoo

Our local zoo has a trick or treat day where everybody gets dressed up, wanders  around the zoo and gets candy. It was pretty fun. We met my friend Denise and her son, Brady. Of course, I was the only mommy to actually dress up with my kid. Kind of embarrassing, but we did get big kudos from all  the zoo employees. For those of you far removed from children's books, we are Curious George (and Georgette) and the Man in the Yellow Hat. Yes, my hat was big. These costumes will be making another appearance this weekend, so I'll get better pics of the kids.

What about Merli?!

So it seems that Merli has been neglected on the blog and so here's a pic of her doing yoga. In my defense, she doesn't do a whole lot yet. Just kind of sits around smiling at everybody and watching her big brother. Oh yeah, she eats too. ALL THE TIME and with gusto! She'd make any Italian grandmother proud.

I do have video of her to post, but for some reason the "add video" button isn't showing up on my toolbar. I'll wait and try to add it again tomorrow. Sorry!