Hank's Pick Up Tricycle

Aunt Cynthia and Uncle John sent Hank a tricycle for his 2nd birthday last year. Well, Jason added a bed with tailgate to it and now Hank uses it to haul his tools all over the yard. Hauling tools is very important work!

Hank is a big boy now!

Hank often tells me that he's a big boy and that Merli is a baby. This is a big deal- the difference between babies and big boys. For instance, he explains in great detail that Merli can't eat real food because she doesn't have any teeth! Genius! However he does take very seriously his role as Sissy's big brother. Merli is not quite crawling, but she can roll wherever she wants to go. And she always wants to be near Hank, so whenever he's playing and she's hanging out on her blanket, she'll roll over to him and knock down his Lincoln Logs or his legos or his Thomas the Train or whatever he's working on and he isn't so happy about that! So I was explaining to him that Merli is growing up and getting bigger and would soon learn to crawl, walk and eat and would become a big girl. I also explained that since he's her big brother, he needed to take care of her and teach her things. Well, he took that all in and was thinking about it and then very seriously told me that when Sissy is big, he'll take her in a boat and teach her to catch a trout. I forgot to mention that Hank apparently is an expert at catching trout. He tells me constantly about how many trout he has caught. Hmmmmm.......

Anyway, Hank likes to dress himself these days and we have pretty big arguments about what he can and can't wear to school. (I don't think the AC/DC t-shirt- which he calls his ABCD shirt- is appropriate for Catholic school and he does). He very proudly came out to play yesterday after he put his pants on ALL BY HIMSELF. He couldn't understand why his pants kept falling down! Ha!

Hank and Merli's trip to Arizona!

So the Brown's were all over the place this past month. Jason spent a week fishing in Alaska with his folks and then hunting in eastern Oregon with his Dad, Uncle David, and buddy Lonnie. In the meantime, I took the kids to my parents for some fun in the sun...lots and lots of sun. I spent a week there with them and then I headed off to Cabo with my girlfriends. However, I don't think I was missed. Hank and Merli went swimming every day at G Nana and G Papa's pool and we discovered a wonderful park in Anthem that has a train and a water park that Hank really enjoyed. Hank also got up on a horse ALL BY HIMSELF and was only disappointed because my mom wouldn't let him go fast. Merli just sat around looking cute and smiling at everybody, which has become her MO. Here are some pics!