Annual Christmas Traditions...

Today, being the day after Thanksgiving, it was time to pull out the Christmas decorations for both inside and out! What a fun time of the year! Blake and I have looked forward to it... he had been wanting to do outside lights since early October!

We started a tradition last year that Carter got his own tree in his room to decorate. I took the liberty of going with a "Sporting Ball" theme and I think it paid off because today when we pulled out all the decorations... he went nuts. So now, we are in the midst of teaching him that they are just to look at and not to touch. He has done great so far! He wants to sit and do everything right next to his tree... like read books! Since he has seen all the decorations around the house the last couple of days... when we tell him to pick out books to read, he has brought us all his Christmas books... such a smarty and in the Chirstmas Spirit already! :)

Here is Carter hanging the new football he got to pick out this year for his tree!

Then it was off shopping for Addison's tree decorations. She picked out pink balls of all types and butterflies... we think she did great! Here she is hanging the last ball.

Here was just some good times hanging out all together afterwards!

Brown Family Thanksgiving '08 in Tyler/Lindale!

We got in around 1AM Friday morning. The kids were rock stars in the car for nearly 6 hours! We started our Friday visiting Pa-pa at work!

Carter rolled tires with Pa-Pa and thought that was so cool!

Then we took Addie to meet Great Grandma George for the very first time!

That night, we headed over to Scott and Krista's, where Carter had a blast playing with Cade and Maddox! Scott, Blake and the kids before they left for wedding day errands!
Cute pic of Heather and Carson!

What Me-Me's living room looked like with the babies around!

All dressed up at the wedding- Carson and Addie

I thought I had come to the wedding prepared... I brought Carter's favorite... peanuts. It worked for about 60 seconds and then we had to leave the ceremony.

This was my favorite seen the whole wedding night... Carter playing with his two new cousins - Sean and Kaylee.... all 3 of their laughs were infectious! Sean was amazing with Carter always trying to entertain him!

Us 3 sister in laws - Jesse, Heather and me

Thanksgiving Family Photo in the leaves.... wow... is that the awesome part of being in East Texas for the fall... beautiful leaves and fall colors everywhere!

How cute do the boys look... right out of a catalog!

The 6 of us! All old and married with kids! (But we can still have some fun!)

Lance and his 3 kiddos!

This was Thanksgiving Dinner number 1 for us! Yummy Greenburg smoked turkey... it was one of "Oprah's Favorite Things" a few years back... right from Tyler, TX!! Pa-Pa a.k.a. Lance sends us home with a whole new one every year! Thanks Pa-Pa!

Everyone called Blake the "Kid Whisperer" while we were there... if Blake was in the house, all 5 of the kids were more than likely surrounding him!!! :)

This is Aunt Jesse, Clint's beautiful new wife!

Aunt Sharon (Diane's (Me-Me's) sister) came all the way in from Wichita, KS to spend Thanksgiving with us! She remembers clearly reading to Heather, Clint and Blake "Spooky Old Tree," so she had all the nephews and nieces around to read it again!
Carter and Aunt "Hey-Hey" got lots of good tickle-time in!

I told Addie this is THE ONLY time she is allowed in a bathtub with 2 other boys! We had such a great time with them all together! We reminisced back to last year when Heather and I were pregnant about how fun it was going to be Thanksgiving '08 with all 3 of them! It sure was!

Cousin Carson knows how infatuated Carter is with balls and bought these matching PJ's... we have officially started a new Thanksgiving tradition of matching PJ's!

Me-me was the most AMAZING host for us all 5 days. We love spending time there with you and since the car ride there and back was so incredibly smooth... we will be back sooner than we thought!! :)

Traveling.

This has been one of those weeks of travel for us. I was in beautiful Phoenix, AZ Monday-Wednesday... too bad it was spent mostly in a meeting room. I hate how they send you to these beautiful resort/spas and you hardly see the light of day. However we did have a yummy dinner on Monday at Roy's and hung out by a campfire at the resort on Tuesday night. The resort was on a Indian Reservation.... just beautiful. So I landed at 6:30 last night and Blake had taken off early that same morning for beautiful and quite smelly Lubbock and Amarillo.

By the way... Blake ate last night at the World Famous Big Texan off Route 66! Ask him about his Limo ride to the restaurant!

He lands tonight and we are off on our first big 5 hour drive with 2 kids to Tyler for Blake's brother, Clint's wedding!

During the gap of one of us parents being in town yesterday, Ya-Ya and Grandpa Joe, picked up the kids, gave them dinner and baths... all by the time I got home from the airport... wow was I seriously impressed!!!

It is so sweet to see Carter with Grandpa... they were outside at the park (in the pitch black) last night playing. Carter gave me a big hug and then wanted immediately back in Grandpa's arms! Inside Addie was happy as can be with Ya-Ya!

Carter and Grandpa watched "Cars," notice how close Carter kept moving towards Grandpa and how he had his arm on him at all times!

Happy Half Birthday to Addison!

This coming Thursday, Addie reaches her 6 month milestone. It of course called for a PARTY with her best friend Ella over at the Perkins. You have to take a look at Ella's blog to see some pretty incredible "before and afters" of the girls from 6 months ago and now. They look so tiny! Ella's blog

Megan got the best pictures of them on the couch... but here are a few more of my favorites of the afternoon!

Addie is sitting up much better these days but still can't compete with Ella's strong abdominal muscles and needs a break every once and awhile!




Addie loves Ella's toes!

Carter had fun learning how to play "washers" and throwing the football with the guys all afternoon... he was in heaven!

A Visit From Mema!

Mema came over to hang out with us Friday afternoon and spend dinner time with us. It was great having her here!

We had fun with Mema playing with bubbles and getting in the Christmas Spirit with the new Santa hats!

Since we never got around to carving the pumpkins... we decorated them today with Potato Head-like parts! Fun and not so messy!

This is just me practicing different camera tricks.

Life is Good...

We are truly so blessed at this point in our lives and thank God everyday for two beautiful and healthy children and a fun life all together. Here, Addie working hard to sit up! And when she fell... her big brother was there to support her...

Nothing major has been going on in our lives the last couple of weeks, which is kinda of nice... just enjoying life and our babies...

This is one of the best times of the year, weather wise... which becomes very important when you have a toddler that ALWAYS wants to be outside! We get home everyday and try to spend as much time outside with the kids. On tonight's walk, this was Addison 1/2 along.... rough day! (Notice... Carter is in the background smiling saying "cheese," when he saw me with the camera!)

The "bumbo chair" is truly one of the best inventions and I so wish I had invented it. It alone could revolutionize single parents with kids this age. Nights that is just one of us... this is what Addison loves to be in and she just travels with Carter as he eats dinner, takes a bath and we read and play in his room before bed... happy as can be if watching her brother!

Really.... I promise it was very cold out at 7AM last Saturday morning! And yes, she is dressed in one of Carter's PJ's!!!! (Seriously... the way she is growing, we would spend a fortune on new pajamas every month!) ;)

While we were busy getting ready for work one morning... Carter drug the "Exersaucer" from our bedroom to the hall and this is where we found him... he had climbed inside of it all by himself!

Addie still strongly dislikes her car seat most of the time... here was a rare smiley moment... we are mentally preparing for our 5 hour trek to Lindale soon!

Amelia and Barrett, kids that live in our neighborhood, at our house on Monday for our weekly play date.... isn't she a cutie... she is 20 months old! (Look at those boys look at her!)