Christmas recap coming soon!

A full Christmas recap will be posted once we get back from our beach trip with our friends from high school...but for now, check out pictures of our holiday celebrations here.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Christmas Eve Eve

We had our annual dinner party with Dad's family tonight. We went to Morelia's per Evelyn's suggestion. We had 22 people there! Holy crap that was a big party! I was exhausted after I left. It felt strange to be so tired after two and a half hours of sitting. But, as strange as it was, it was what I felt. Absolutely pooped. Addison came right in the house and crashed. She watched two quick videos and was out. She was so tired, she even told Robert to leave her room instead of having him sing to her as per the norm. He felt sad, but I think he understood. You can see pics from the family gathering (thanks to Evelyn's photography skills!) here.

It's Christmas Eve Eve and I'm about to pee in my pants I'm so excited. I'm going to watch A Christmas Story as many times as possible tomorrow. Thanks, TBS! ;-)

Sugar cookies, here I come. Yum!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Happy Holidays from the Browns...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Addison turned 2 today!

Don't know why this picture is sideways, but it's the best I can do for now. I think it still shows how adorable Addison's birthday cake turned out. It's a milkshake - because milkshakes are Addison's most favorite thing besides horses, painting, kitty cats, and any number of other things. :-)

Her party was wonderful. She got far too many gifts, as usual. She is so loved & so fortunate. I only hope she understands that as she gets older. Probably her favorite gift of the night was a giant stuffed horse from Aunt Evelyn & Uncle Andrew. She has already played with everything she got, but she carried the horse with her to bed, so I'm guessing it's up there on her list of faves. Speaking of bedtime, Addison had a complete meltdown around 6:15. She cried for about 30 minutes, refusing to eat, play, color, paint, change clothes, bathe, everything. She finally settled on a movie, and went to sleep with very little protest at 6:45. It's going to be a very, very early morning at our house tomorrow!

Here is a picture of Addison & Amaly, just because I think it's cute. And - YEAH! - Amaly finally came back! We'd missed her SO much! We're going to have lunch with Amaly & Heather Hutchinson tomorrow. Should be fun. Amaly is going to serve Addison's most favorite food - macaroni. (Though Addison says it "mack-ee-roni".

Four days until Christmas. I cannot wait!

Last but not least, CONGRATULATIONS to Fenella & Mark! They got married today!

Addison freakin' LOVES kitties!

Addison got several birthday cards and gifts in the mail today. She opened a cute outfit and a kitty card from Aunt Pat & Uncle Brian (Betty's sister & her husband). Then we opened a cuppycake card from Papa with a check. We must've had ESP today 'cause we definitely saved the best for last! Aunt Evelyn's mom & dad, Evelyn & Dick, sent Addison her favorite card of the day! She said, "OOOHHH! Kitty! Pretty kitty!". She carried it around for a while, the ended up in the dining room, sitting in a chair, looking at it for what seemed like 15 minutes. Thanks to all the people who sent her something today (or earlier!). She is very, very excited for her birfee!

Welcome to baby Kaitlyn Noel!

This afternoon we got to meet Robert's cousin Alice's new baby girl - Kaitlyn Noel. When Addison saw her initially, she froze and didn't say anything. After being in the room for a minute, Addison said, "Can I touch it?". Hilarious. We practiced saying "baby Kaitlyn" all the way to the hospital. Guess that practice really payed off. :-)

Addison had a birthday party at school today. They had pizza for lunch and we took in cupcakes for snack. But for some reason they were going to do cupcakes at 4pm...so Addison missed them. I picked her up earlier than normal today so that we could go visit baby Kaitlyn. They're going to save them for tomorrow I think...I hope.

One day of school left. Addison will return to school in January as a big girl member of the 2 year old class. Exciting!

Potty training is NOT easy and is NOT fun. Good luck to any of you who have not yet experienced this joy. I'm off to the diaper station now.

so, did you know...

If you don't pay Comcast when your bill is due, they'll turn off your cable & Internet? Apparently, they want their money without delay. I evidently failed to pay our November bill, so when I got the December bill, I freaked out when I saw the total. Today in the mail we got this official "Final Notice before suspension and termination of service". Wow. Those people REALLY want their money. I'd paid the bill last week but they seem to have printed the final notice before they got our electronic payment. I had a minor panic attack over that today, but it was remedied by checking our comcast account online and seeing a "$ 0.00" balance. Word to the wise, pay your Comcast bill on time. They do not think twice about cutting your service - even with ten years of excellent payment history.

My mom saved the day by ordering Addison's birthday cake at Tasty Pastry. It's going to be a surprise...can't wait to show it to you all!

Four days and counting until freedom...

"HOT", Mommy!

Addison burned her hand on the stove today. We made fudge and afterward, she was helping me clean up. I specifically told her, "Addison, the stove is hot. Do not touch it.". I guess I should've just said, "Hey, why don't you see what it's like to burn your hand!", because no sooner than the words were out of my mouth, her hand was plastered down on the hot stove burner. She screamed and cried, Robert came to the rescue, we put her hand under cold water. She requested a binky (pacifier) - much to my dismay, since we've had two nights without binkys at bedtime. I felt horrible, but she seemed to have gotten over it by bedtime. Poor baby girl.

Fun weekend, lots to share, but sleep is calling. Check back later for a report. Also, check my picasa web photo site for some cute Christmas pics of Addison.

OMG! 10 days 'till Addison turns 2!

Addison turns TWO in ten days! The time has absolutely flown by at warp speed. Some updates on Addison:
She's getting pretty bossy. "No, Mommy!", "No, Daddy!", "Mine.", "No, no, no, no, NOOOOO!".
She's a much pickier eater.
She's accomplished at counting up to 11 (though she frequently skips 3,4,5), she can sing most of the ABCs, she knows a ton of other songs, seems to be able to carry a tune, loves playing notes in sequence on the piano, has lots of books memorized, and has an extraordinary memory.
She sings the "I've got a dollar" song from Little Rascals.
There are probably one million other things that she can do, but that's all that's coming to mind right now. I'm sure if you get to visit with Addison over the holidays she'll show you some things that are not on this list.
It's amazing how much people learn in the first two years of life! Hope to see you all at Addison's birthday party on 12/21 from 2-4pm. There will be yummy cake & milkshakes by request. I will be sending out invites this weekend. Evelyn did them again this year and they are adorable!

Please check out a new website ( www.healingforheather.com ) for a video & explanation of my dear friend Heather's health issues. In the spirit of the Christmas season, please consider making a donation toward her medical costs. She is one of the most lovable, kind-spirited people I have ever had the privilege to know. She inspires me to be a better person. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated by Heather, her family, and me. Thank you in advance!

Amaly comes home tomorrow! Helen & Matt come home next week. Marcus & Jason come home closer to Christmas. Yeah for having fun friends back at home!

Watch your mailboxes for our Christmas cards. They're going out in the mail tomorrow morning! Long's Photography did them and they could not be any more perfect! If you live in Tally and want any portraits done, I highly recommend visiting with Linda & Olyn. They are quite talented at their craft.

That's all for now...check back this weekend for updates on our holiday activities! Cookie making, visiting with Amaly, family dinner at Andrew & Evelyn's house on Saturday night, and lots of shopping are on the docket.

so many things to share!

Life has been crazy lately! Every time I think we're going to have a slow down, more things pop up! This weekend was packed full of activity. On Saturday we got up & went to play disc golf with Andrew & Evelyn. I played my first ever hole. I was not awesome at it, so Addison & I went to the playground to swing. When it was time to go, Adds cried ALL THE WAY to the car and continued until we got to Chick-Fil-A (probably 20 minutes total). I've never been so happy for her to eat french fries! Later that evening we went to the Winter Festival where we saw tons of people we knew. ("Tallahassee is SUCH a small town" - just for you mom!) We, of course, went by BJ's Party House booth for face painting. Lauren painted Addy's face to look like a pink kitty and then we visited with Miss Julie. We ate some good food, and watched a little bit of the parade. Evelyn put it best when she said we only got to see the "top half of the parade". We were so far back it was hard to see much of anything. But we were very close to the announcer, Frank Ranicky, so we got to make fun of his pronunciations of words all evening. Addy got whiny & tired, so we left before the rest of the family did. :-(

Sunday was Market Days, which is always exciting. I bought several Christmas presents and saw lots of things that I loved. I bought a new beach print for our living room. It's by a photographer from Gainesville and it's a print of St. Joe's. I bought it for two reasons: 1) it's St. Joe's & (in case you didn't know) that's where Robert & I got married, and 2) the blue color of the water is absolutely mesmerizing & blends beautifully with the blues in our pillows. I later saw a piece of art that said "Art doesn't have to match your furniture". Made me think a bit, but I decided that in my house, art does have to match the furniture. Addison took a solid nap in her stroller 'cause we were there for FOUR hours shopping. My dad stuck with us the whole time...which I am very impressed with!

Monday afternoon I was supposed to go to an educational sorority (ADK) meeting with a co-worker, but I flaked out. Just really wanted to go home. Maybe another time.

Tuesday was awesome. Trevor & Jen came over with pizza. Patrick came & so did Baby Ryan, who is definitely not a baby anymore. I'm going to make a concerted effort to stop calling him "Baby" Ryan. It's just going to be a process. Anyway, Ryan joined us for his first ever game night - AND it was his first time playing Cranium. It was really fun, but quick. Trevor, Patrick & I really lucked out with the questions so we won right away. Robert, Jen & Ryan were close behind, though. We had belated birthday cupcakes for Ryan (12/4) and Patrick (12/5) and Addison sang "happy birfee" to them. It was way cute! When we were eating cupcakes & brownies, Addison sat on the new lap desk that we bought her at Market Days and it snapped. It's got one really jagged, sharp side now. Awesome. Don't know how we're going to fix it, but I'm sure Robert will come up with something.

I think this weekend will be free. At least I hope it will. I still have a LOT of shopping to do for Robert (READ: ALL of my shopping for Robert!). Also, we need to do more for our secret Santa stocking people for my family's Christmas morning. I also need to spend some time cleaning my house...ugh.

AMALY returns on Friday! WHOO HOO! And I'm 8 work days away from my Christmas break! And only (almost) 11 days until Addison turns 2 and Fenella gets married! Holy cow! Lots of fun coming our way!

deprivation of computer time in excess of five days results in excessive blogging upon return of computer

HALLELUJAH! My photos have been found by Picasa's search function! I cannot explain in words how happy I am at this moment! WHOO HOO!

December photos will be posted on my Picasaweb site as soon as I take some. Since I've been sans computer for a week, I've avoided taking any pics. Stay tuned.

:-)

new background, again

Indecisive should be my middle name. I may never be content with my Christmas background. :-)

busy week

Our laptop is back, but it had to be scrubbed. There were tons of extra videos and pictures of Addison that were not uploaded online that are not lost forever. It's a very sad day for me. I have learned my lesson, though, and we will be buying an external hard drive this weekend. I will never again lose all my memories. Dumb computers.

In happier news, we didn't have to buy a new computer or hard drive.

VERY busy week. Monday was our only calm evening. Tuesday Uncle Patrick came over for an early birthday dinner. Since he was here, Addison has pointed to the chair where he sat at dinner & said, "Uncle Patrick's chair". No one else is allowed to sit there now. :-) Wednesday was Book Fair night at school, and I was supposed to visit my friend, Kendra, in the hospital, but got sick that day with a cold/sinus something, and never made it. (I still haven't been to visit her & I feel awful about that!). Thursday is our normal busy day after school, 'cause I always have a meeting. Friday was exciting. We had our picture proof preview at Long's Photography. We will have an online gallery available at: http://www.longsphotography.com/pickpic/gallery/jump.php
(password: Maclay) where you can see all the images from our photo shoot and order any, if you want. The images will be available online from tomorrow (12/6) until 12/12. Long's designed the most awesome Christmas cards ever for us. I can't wait to mail them out. Should be about two weeks, but it all depends on how long they take at the printers. We ordered a five photo "story board" for Addy's room. It has a variety of the photos on it. We hope she'll enjoy it for many years. It's going to be printed on wood, so it should endure time well.

After that, we rushed to pick up Adds & then ran to Macaroni Grill for Janie's 38th birthday dinner. Did you know that at Macaroni Grill, if it's your birthday, they will sing Happy Birthday to you in Italian? With an operatic voice? They hire voice majors from FSU specifically to sing Happy Birthday in Italian. That's crazy, right? It was really cool, but I still think it's crazy. While we were at dinner, we noticed that Adds had a fever. Her wonderful Daddy literally RAN to CVS to buy her some Tylenol. Don't know how high her fever was then, but when we got home (and after a dose of Tylenol) she was at 100.4. It's likely her 2 year molars combined with her cold that are causing it. It's been a long time since she's felt so bad. She moped all through dinner. Sat in my lap & whined. Then my dad came in (to tell Robert something about the family poker game tonight, since we didn't hear our phones ringing) and after he left, Adds cried, "Doodah! Doodah!" - over & over & over. She even tried to run toward the door after him. Too cute, but I think Robert's parents were a little insulted. She must be feeling better now, because she went right to sleep with no arguments, and she's been sound asleep for almost an hour.

Be on the lookout for Addison's birthday invitation in the mail, everyone! Party will be on 12/21. Evelyn designed an adorable card again this year, so prepare to be blown away!

I am so glad this week has come to an end. We are very much looking forward to the weekend - Winter Festival tomorrow, and Market Days on Saturday. Yeah!

broken laptops, sweet baby girl

Our laptop died. Grandpa Phillip is working on it, but it's questionable at the moment. I don't know when I'll be able to post again. Wish us luck.

In other news, Addison woke me up this morning by tapping my arm. When I opened my eyes, she waved and said, "I missed you, Mommy." I just melted. She said something similar to Robert last night after he got home from the football game. She's the most loving little girl ever. She's the best.

Also, I had a few minutes to change the background again. I got some feedback that the pale green "Merry Christmas tree" theme wasn't quite festive enough. :-)

experimentating

I have the best daughter ever. She's suddenly decided to take naps again, so I have two hours to play around with my blog now! I found a couple of sites that offer free layouts. Some were cute, but didn't seem to format correctly on my page. After several trials, I ended up with this one. Not the most colorful, but I think it's festive & I like that it says "Merry Christmas". It may change frequently now that I've mastered how to copy & paste HTML codes. :-)

In honor of my husband, who is currently braving the rain in order to support his team, I feel like I need to say "Go Noles"!

Happy Saturday!

Christmas has arrived!

Happy Black Friday everyone! Hope you all got some good shopping in...I know we did! We were out of the house at 8:30. We had breakfast at Chick-Fil-A, went to Target, and then hit the mall. Bath & Body Works had the longest line, but I was willing to wait. They have the best sales on the day after Thanksgiving. I stock up for the year on air fresheners for my classroom & their fancy soap. While I was waiting in the 20 minute line, I was suckered in to buying stuff I didn't need. Robert had taken Addison outside & I was weak & succeptible to salesperson pressure in his absence. We'll be going back tomorrow to return a few items. :-)
Overall, it was a pretty quick trip, but productive. We have almost all of our Christmas shopping done now! Whoo hoo!

Thanksgiving was excellent. We had lots of delicious food...including some new things. Robert ate sweet potatoes at each meal (we eat twice - lunch with Robert's family, and then with mine for dinner). I tried sweet potatoes, too, but I didn't like them as much as Robert did. Addison tried stuffing (not a fan), sweet potatoes (not a fan), corn casserole (loved it), and cranberry sauce (not a fan). We missed our Uncle Bubbles & Aunt Evelyn, but I'm sure they had a great day with Evelyn's family in Margate. All in all, it was a very happy day with our families.

We're going to eat some yummy Thanksgiving leftovers (thanks Mom!) for lunch, and then will continue decorating the rest of the house. Robert has lucked out big time today: it's raining, so he can't be forced outside to do outdoor decorating. Not to worry - I plan to get him outside as soon as the rain slacks up. Maybe tomorrow morning. His time will come.

Here's some funny for your day: Addison's reaction to our Christmas tree & some musical decorations. We put the tree up while she was sleeping last night. Sorry the video is so dark. We had the lights off so that she could really get a feel for the Christmas lights on the tree.

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope you all get to spend the day with family & friends! Here's a quick message from Addison!

Again....HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

testing, testing, 1,2,6?

Today was some kind of day. Glad it's almost behind us. Car battery died when I was picking up Robert. Luckily his co-worker Mike jumped our car, we rushed to pick up Adds, then hurried down the road to Sears. We ate Addison's new favorite - Chick-Fil-a - for dinner. Sears was SOOOOOOO slow to fix the battery...probably took two hours total. Thankfully, we have the world's most patient & wonderful almost-two year old in the history of the world, and she cooperated nicely the whole time. She was anxious to ge thome, and fell asleep shortly after getting in the door. (This pic is from our trip to the fair, but I thought this post needed something cute to pick up the mood!)

Evelyn is a graphic design genius. She made the CUTEST invitation for Adds' birthday. Can't wait for you all to see it! Thanks Evelyn for all your hard work!

We're Famous!

Addison & Robert are in today's newspaper (page 4A) and online at: http://tallahassee.com/article/20081123/NEWS01/811230331

Whoo hoo!

Busy Day!

Today was a busy day! We woke up earlier than normal (6 AM). Don't know what woke Addison, but she was ready to go, so up we all got. We to David's Cub Scout den's pancaked breakfast around 8AM. We ate with David, Memaw & Pepaw, while Aunt Janie & Uncle Craig manned the ticket table. They were pretty packed when we left, so hopefully it was a successful fundraiser for them.

After getting home from the pancake breakfast, we noticed a neighbor was having a yard sale. We walked down the road & ended up buying several items for Adds: a doctor kit, Sesame Street placemat, playdoh, and Addison's personal favorite - a sit & spin.

She played on the sit & spin until Nonnie, Uncle Andrew & Aunt Evelyn arrived. Then we all headed out into the 40 degree weather to Bradley's Country Fair. Traffic was better than we anticipated, and the first event we encountered was Addison's most requested activity: pony rides. (See the video below). A newspaper photographer from the Democrat took Addison's photo while she was on the pony, so if you catch a pic of Adds either online at tallahassee.com or in the newspaper, please let us know! After the ponies, we went straight to eat yummy Bradley's sausage. Once our bellies were full, we trekked for two hours through the craft area, purchasing a princess crown (which Adds will not wear), cloth gift bag, kiddie-sized apron (thanks, Nonnie!), a necklace for Mommy and a bracelet for Addy. At the end of shopping, we ran into Addison's teacher, Miss Julie. Miss Jule also works as a clown & make-up artist with BJ's Party House (which Evelyn does the website for and who Andrew used to clown with), so Addison got her face painted. It was a GREAT day! Here are a few:

Here's the video of Addison & her Daddy riding the pony:

One more time about my friend Heather - please check out her blog. She is in serious need of some funding assistance to cover the costs of her new treatment plan as well as transportation to & from NYC for each treatment. If you have any ideas on how to raise money for medical costs or if you would like to make a donation, please let me know so I can pass the info on to Heather! Thanks!

Lollipops & other good news

So as we turn onto the access road behind Costco today - well before the view of the "Lollipop" water tower - Addison says, "Lollipop, are you?". When it finally comes into view she says, "Lollipop! I see you!". Talk about a memory.

In other news, my dear friend Heather got some encouraging news today at the doctor. She saw a specialist in New York City who explained just how severe her condition is, but created a specific treatment plan and set her up with a team to assist her with what I hope will be a very speedy & successful recovery! I am looking forward to the day that Heather will be healthy again! Here's to a new chance for Heather! I'm hoping for the VERY VERY best!!

One week until Thanksgiving....which also means one week until it's time to put out Christmas decorations!

David's birthday

Happy 9th birthday to our nephew David! For those of you who know David, yes, he really is 9 years old already. Here's a cute pic of him from our family dinner tonight at Logan's.

Funny Addison story from yesterday: on the way to school/work in the AM, she looked out the window as we were driving on the access road behind Costco and suddenly said, "Lollipop! Lollipop! Lollipop!". We were totally confused until I noticed in the distance out the window was a water tower. Poor kid sees candy everywhere! :-) I guess the water tower slightly resembles a lollipop...

North Florida Fair

Today we went to the North Florida fair with my family. We were there for almost four hours! The food was better than I remember from years past. Addison & I ate grilled chicken & french fries which was not too bad, considering. Mom was none to pleased with her pulled pork sandwich, though. Dad bought everyone funnel cakes & fudge - yum! We went on the merry-go-round twice, which Addison loved. She wanted to ride on the pink pony, but both times the pink pony was unavailable. Luckily, she was flexible and compromised on a white pony the first ride, and a brown pony the second time. We played lots of carnival games. Uncle Boy (Hoyt) won Addison a cute purple bear, and Daddy won her a black puppy dog. The dog immediately became her best friend. Sadly, it already has a hole, from which there are Styrofoam beads leaking. While she's sleeping, the dog will be undergoing an operation to repair the damage! Addy's favorite part was the petting zoo. She fed goats with her Uncle Boy (Hoyt). She laughed every time the goat licked her hand. It was hilarious! After all that fun, Addison fell asleep on the way home.



Addison used the potty twice today. She's still inconsistent, but we're working hard at it. Robert & I would love to not change diapers anymore!

Next weekend we plan to go to Bradley's Country Store Days. The weather should be great, and there will be yummy sausages to eat!

Market Days & the Winter Festival are coming the first weekend in December. Really looking forward to both of those. It's unfortunate that they happen on the same weekend...it's a lot to do in two days!

Last but not least, I must make up for not including Amaly's long-awaited return to Tallahassee on my list of reasons why I'm excited for December. So, to add to my previous post:
December 12 - Amaly finally returns! Can't wait to hang out & catch up! (Love you, Amaly!)

Robert's 27th "birfdee"

So, I'm exceedingly late on this whole blog thing. Based on the number of attempts I had to make at getting a blogspot address, everyone except for me, Robert & Addison must already have a blog. I talked with my sister in law Evelyn after she started her blog. She told me how she wanted a cool title. I think I failed that effort here. But I got really tired of trying to come up with something witty. I even tried "wittytitle"...and it was taken.

Tonight, Robert has gone to the FSU vs. Boston College game. Prior to that, we celebrated his 27th birthday by ordering pizza from our favorite place - Paulina's Pizzeria - and playing Mario Kart. Robert's parents came over to eat lunch with us. Addison's birthday present for her Daddy was that she took a 2 hour nap! First voluntary weekend nap in over a month!

We had fun while Robert was at the game. We spent time watching movies (animals, of course!), eating "birfdee" (birthday) cake, and braiding Addison's hair. We tried two times. The first attempt was a regular french braid. The second was french braid "pig tails" as Addy called them.


Later, she was completely uninterested in going to sleep. We spent about two hours negotiating. She kept asking for her Daddy. It's fascinating to me that kids - even infants - can notice the most subtle changes in routine. Children are amazing creatures.

I'm excited for December to arrive for MANY reasons:
1. December 5 - Photo proof session with Long's Photography. You know how much I love photos of my family, so I cannot wait to see what shots Linda got of us!!
2. December 19 - Last day of school! Whoo hoo! I love my children, but I really look forward to the extra time with Addison!
3. December 21 - I thought there was something happening on this day...oh wait! It's FENELLA & MARK'S WEDDING in Edinburgh! :-( Sad I can't be there, so I HOPE it will be broadcast via webcam.
3.5 December 21 - Addison's 2nd "birfdee"! Oh how time flies...
4. December 24-25 - Only my absolute favorite time of year. Nothing* makes me happier than the Christmas holiday!
5. December 27-28 - Beach trip with my best buds. It's the first big vacation we've ever taken as a group...and it's about time!

*Except my family!

Happy 27th Birthday, Robert!