It's A ....

Our new arrival has joined us! Alan has known the gender of this little one since the fifth month and has kept it a secret through the whole pregnancy, as I did not want to know until delivery. Way to go Alan! So, for all those who have been waiting to hear...we had a.....................girl. Her name is Amanda Sidney, named after two great women in our family who we hope she will draw inspiration from through out her life. She was 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 20 in. long.

Her cute hat bow the nurses made for her in the hospital when she was born.





Proud Grandma

Dirty Feet

This is a true parent moment that has to be shared.
So today, Sunday, Ashton decided that he wasn't going to wear his shoes home after church. Or at least, Mommy had asked him to put his shoes back on multiple times and he didn't listen so the choice ended up to be no shoes and he'd have to wear only socks. Once home he proceeded to go directly to our bathroom and wash his feet because he said his feet were now dirty. I found him with both feet in the sink with warm soapy water. Thinking that he was okay to finish this activity on his own I went to the kitchen to get lunch together. When we called everyone to the table to eat Ashton came quickly and seemed to have cleaned his feet just fine. I figured everything went well, but was wondering if I might meet up with a mess later on in my bathroom.
After lunch I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and noticed that he had cleaned up well and there wasn't any left over mess from his feet cleaning. I then proceeded to get toothpaste and brush my teeth. After a couple of toothbrush strokes I began to have a very odd flavor in my mouth. It tasted like hand soap! YUCK!!! I immediately began to rinse my mouth out with water and at the same time try not to gauge. Once most of the flavor was gone I went to talk with Ashton. I wanted to know if he has put hand soap in the toothpaste or on the toothbrush. When I explained to him that I was surprised to find hand soap on my toothbrush he matter of fact explained that he needed something to scrub his legs with when washing his feet and had used my toothbrush. Trying not to gauge again I explained to him that this leg scrubbing item went in my mouth and that that was gross. It wasn't until then that he showed sensitivity to my situation. He simply needed a scrub brush for his legs because walking outside without shoes made them dirty, lets hope feet were not involved in the scrubbing...but that is not a guarantee. Let's just say that I will not be using that toothbrush again. YUCK!!!! Only parenthood can provide you with such experiences:)

Family Photos

Thanks to my wonderful friend, Melanie, we have some FABULOUS family photos. I'm not going to share all, as I want to leave some suprises for our Christmas letter. Thanks so much Melanie!!

Too Much of a Temptation

Our neighbor raked his leaves into a huge pile yesterday and the temptation was too great! Lucky for us we have a wonderful neighbor, and we also had a rake to put it back into a pile. Ashton, Abbie and their friend, Joann, had a blast playing in the leaves. Oh, to be young again! If I wasn't pregnant I would have jumped in and joined them.

Superhero and Native Americans

Everyone needs a superhero even Pocahontas, or should I say two Pocahontas. This year Ashton was our Spiderman, with muscles. I searches three stores to find the Spiderman with muscles because as every person knows you need to have muscles when you are a superhero, at least "our" Spiderman felt so. As for the two lovely ladies of our household, the final decision was Pocahontas after many weeks of back and forth between a leopard and Pocahontas. I have to say that I surprised myself this year by being able to make two Pocahontas outfits for only $6 each. The girls loved the costumes and the thing that made all my hardwork worth while was Grace's comment. She said, "Mom, can I wear this to bed." If they want to sleep in it than you know that you did a good job:) Happy Halloween!

Lawn mower

Okay,
I don't have a picture but this has to be said. I never knew that a baby stroller could be used for so many things...one being a lawn mower. We have a little baby stroller that we bought for Grace long ago for her dolls. I think every little girl has had one. Well, it is now the hottest item in the Brown house hold. Many fights have broken out over this stroller. Abbie wants it for her dolls, which makes sense. Grace wants it for her baby dolls also, or pets, or whatever else she can put in it. AND Ashton has chosen to use it as his lawn mower. I swear our grass should be so much shorter with all the mowing he does (at least once a day). He also mows our carpet! He will ask me even if I like how he mowed the carpet and if I like the lawn mower lines. The thing I find the most humorous with this whole experience is that he comes to me during one of his lawn mowing moments and tells me that the lawn mower is not working. He smiles and with an adult matter of fact voice he states,"The lawn mower stopped working. It is over heated and has to take a break." A few minutes later it is back to normal and the lawn mowing can continue. This all stems from Alan's recent lawn mowing experiences with him rushing through our jungle of a lawn and blowing a spark plug. Hope this brings you a chuckle as it has for me.

Our good news!

We are expecting a new little addition to our family in March. Unfortunately, because of the "Morning Sickness" I am unable to undate anything. So hopefully, when I get farther along I will beable to tell you all about our fabulous vacation and our wonderful growing family:)

Cousins and Dress-ups

Grace and Ashton were in heaven at Grandma and Grandpa's house as they got to enjoy two of their favorite things at the same time. Cousins and dressing up! We just love being with family!!!!

Airplanes and Boys

Airplanes and boys are two things that seem to always go together. Our son, Ashton, can't get enough of them. When we were at the airport he ran from one window to the other all the way to our gate. Luckily we had a long lay over or we would have been late. We were constantly stopping and reminding him that when we got to our gate he would be able to see lots of airplanes. That reminder did little to increase his speed or to deture him from looking out each gate window. Once we got to the gate the airplane watching was a great distraction and even Grace and Abbie got into it.
Also, my mother was an angel and came to help me fly with the kids. Thanks Mom! I couldn't of done it without you!!!

Bows! Bows! and More Bows!

This is my new addiction! Hair bows! I just had a fabulous time last night with a bunch of friends learning how to make these hair clips and bows for my girls. I never knew it could be so much fun. Thanks Melanie for teaching us last night, I've already started making some more!

Can We Adopt Them?

My kids are currently pet crazy! They pretend to BE pets and pretend to HAVE pets. Grace even mentioned that she is saving all her money to buy a dog and a cat. Well, a little while back we started having an ant problem in our house. The kids spotted them and went crazy. Grace had Ashton pick them up (of course, she didn't want to touch them)and put them into a cup. They put cherrios and rice crispies in the container with the ants for food. Then Grace turns to me and says,"Mom, can we adopt them(the ants)?" Wow! They must really feel pet deprived I thought. I didn't let the guilt last long when I realized I could really capitalize on this experience. I told them that they could have ALL the ants as their very own pets. It was a Win-Win situation. They got pets and I got rid of the ants.

Ducks?

It has been rainy the past few months. We have been feeling a little water logged. I didn't realize how much until...we opened our blinds one afternoon to see ducks on our lawn. We were in shock! I guess the water logged feeling was right on. The cutest thing was how excited our kids were and once again they wanted these birds to be their pets. Grace wanted to bring them inside.

Early Morning Breakfast at Keeneland

Hats Off

Hats off to Abbie! She is now using her helmet only during sleeping hours. It is fun to finally be able to do her hair.

Pinewood Derby

Okay, I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile, but have not. So, hear it goes. This activity was to be a daddy bonding experience and unfortunately Daddy hurt his back and wasn't able to do much, so it became a mommy and kids project. We had a fun time! My lack of quality tools and know-how was a minor set back, but overall the cars turned out okay(lucky for me they are young and don't know the difference). I definitely know what to use next time POWER TOOLS!

This is me in the garage cutting the wood blocks using a small saw.

The final result was wonderful. The kids loved their cars!! Ashton really enjoyed seeing them race down the car track at the Pinewood Derby.

"She's my Zebra, Mom!"

"She's my Zebra, Mom!" Ashton was adamant that Abbie was HIS Zebra and HE was the Zookeeper. I had to wonder to myself was it the striped shirt Abbie's wearing or just a little boy's longing for a pet that she was transformed into a Zebra this morning? I do have to agree that by putting up the chairs across the entrance to the kitchen, so I could mop the floor, made it look somewhat like a nice holding place for zoo animals. The bars on the chairs made it look so real. Well, if anyone does come to visit we can really call this place a Zoo afterall. Our first animal being a Zebra (thanks to Abbie and some help from a little brother:))

First Climb

After having about a month of crawling, our Abigail decided that she needed to try a new terrain. She has currently not shown any interest at all in the stairs, but for some reason today was the day. I have to laugh because just last night I talked to my sister-in-law about the stairs not being an issue yet and here she goes and proves me wrong the very next day. Well, our little mountain climber didn't get too far, but she seems eager to try again.

Up goes Abbie

What do you get when you put a baby, a sister, a brother, and an air mattress together? Yep, you guessed it! A laughing baby:) Family, friends, and especially grandparents please don't worry. This event occured under close supervision.

Our Visitor

We were able to enjoy a wonderful visit from our friend, Jilly. As you can see Ashton loved the one on one time he got, especially when it involved making cookies:) I enjoyed the opportunity to have one extra set of hands each day to help me with getting kids ready, putting kids in cars, feeding and all those things moms do. Once they leave I often find myself wondering how much a full-time nannie would cost.

Off to Primary

Our little guy was off to Primary this Sunday. He entered the world of Sunbeams. It was totally adorable to see how excited he was to accompany Grace and Mommy to Primary. The best was when they had the Sunbeams stand up in front to sing them the "Hello" song and he made a face just like Bashful on the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Daddy came in to enjoy the welcome song and got a little wave from Ashton. What a proud little guy we have and how quickly he is growing.