This one's for Aunt Connie... (and of course everyone else)

Aiden started t-ball this year. These are the kind of things I live for as a mommy!!! He has so much fun and loves playing!!! Here are some pics from his first game.

First time on the field.

Some pre-game stretching.... is it bad that he can't quit looking back at his momma???

"Hey Batter, Batter!!!"

His first at bat. He was so proud to finally get to put on that helmet!!!

The first swing wasn't successful, but the second swing was!!!

Yay!!! I hit the ball!!!

Running to first...

Looking for second base...

Scoring his first run!!!

High-five for the coach!!!

This game was soooo much fun! It is such a joy to see your children completely enjoying themselves! I loved watching his little personality come out when he was interacting with the other kids and the coach. It's not very often that I get to watch him "from a distance." Even more than that, it's so much fun to see the self-confidence they build when they accomplish something! He was so proud of himself. He felt like a really big boy! We have four games left. I'll be posting more pics soon!

It's been a long time...

Yeah, I know it's been a while, but get ready... A LOT has happened since my last post. (That's about 2 months ago.) School started for the kids today and school is OVER for me in less than 3 weeks! That means more blogging, or at least less excuses for not blogging often enough!

So here we go. Let's start with back to school photos!

Today was Sophie's first day of 1st grade and Aiden's first day of preschool. I recently went part-time at work, which allowed us to put Aiden in preschool this year instead of daycare. It is seriously A LOT cheaper!!! He is going to have a great time! Oh, and that's also one less excuse I have for not blogging very often... you should hear a lot more from me!

This is Sophie's new outfit that she picked out just for her first day of 1st grade. She has been daydreaming about a new outfit from Justice, so we went to Justice and picked out a look and then went to Kohl's with my 30% off coupon and tried our best to re-create that look, obviously for less $. She was very happy with the result. I was very happy with the price! Everyone wins!!! (Except for Aiden, who had to sit there while she tried on outfit after outfit.)

Aiden was super excited about his first day of preschool. The let the moms stay for the first 45 minutes on the first day so the kids can get used to their new classrooms. Aiden was ready for me to leave as soon as he got there! I stayed for 5 minutes and then he said I could leave! I almost, just a little bit, wish he would have wanted me to stay!

That's it for now. Check back for vacation pics...coming soon!!!

Time to play catch-up...

It's been a long time, I know. It tends to get pretty busy around here!!! I have had a lot to do and have been complaining that I don't have time to update my blog, but Travis keeps telling me that my blog is the last thing I need to worry about!!! Well, I'm between semesters right now. My new (and last) semester starts tomorrow, so I thought I'd give you all a big update on everything we've been up to this spring.

We went home to visit family in March over Sophie's cycle break. It was a pretty quick trip, but the kids love seeing their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I really wish we got to go home more often. While we were there, the kids and I made some Easter sugar cookies. It looks like they had a good time!

How did he get icing there???

Sophie is our party planner. She plans parties nearly every week. We get invitations to things such as Easter egg hunts, dress-up parties, sleep overs, etc all the time. It's pretty fun. This time she wanted to have a "Fancy" party. She made me a list of things that she needed at her party. It included red cups, red plates, red napkins, red streamers, lemonaide and a cake with strawberry filling. The attire was formal, so Aiden wore his Cars costume from Halloween and Daddy also dressed up for the occasion. You can't really get fancier than a suit jacket and a mullet wig!!!

There was silliness....

And dancing....

This is a random picture of Aiden "hugging" the dog. Poor poor Waffle. His neck might not survive! This is one boy who loves his dog!!!

The kids have spent most of the spring outdoors. The play in the backyard. It is so nice to have kids who are still BFFs. They play so well together. They made a secret club out of Aiden's soccer net.

You can see the TV from only one chair in the dining room. Every morning, the kids eat breakfast sitting in the same chair!!! They know the TV goes off after breakfast, so they have to squeeze every little bit of viewing time in! I could solve this problem by turning the TV off, but then I wouldn't have this story to tell them when they get older! (Those are my new dining chairs, btw. Yes, they are aluminum and yes, they are cold, but they are uber washable!!!)

I have been spending a lot of my time with Aiden teaching him how to cook. I know he's only 4, but he's a quick learner! In this picture he is making pancake batter. He also can pour it onto the griddle. We've also made cookies, cakes, pies and pizza. Maybe I should have said I'm teaching him how to 'bake'!!! Cooking will be next, but for now we're sticking with baking, which is my personal preference!!! Aiden is a great little helper.

They love posing for pictures!

We have been doing a little family golfing. Daddy has taken us to the driving range a few times. These are pictures of a time when Travis took Aiden.

My little golfer!!!

And to the end of our update... I recently purchased the ITSO storage system that Target carries for some storage in Aiden's room. They were super easy to put together and made a huge difference in the appearance of his room. We spent an afternoon cleaning and re-organizing his room. I know it's been 2 1/2 years since we bought this house and we still have almost nothing on his walls. I guess I'll have to be getting around to doing that soon!

What I did today.

My front flower bed is HUGE (9'x14') and was really bare. We did a little work on it the first year we moved here, but really all we did was clear out the debris and yuck aside from that sedum in the front left corner. We put down some mulch, and of course we added a Cardinals flag. But is is very lacking... so I spent my entire day working on this lovely "little" project. Aiden was my big helper for the day.

Here is the before picture:

And 8 hours later, here is the after picture:

I bought everything but the sedum. I split the sedum into 3 segments because it was so large. They are falling over a little, but they are supposed to be tough to kill and easy to transplant. I'm hoping they perk up soon. I put one of those plastic borders around it because the rain tends to wash the mulch out onto my sidewalk. I'm hoping that will help keep the mulch in. Don't look too closely at the picture, or you will see the weed barrier sticking out. That's right, 7 bags of mulch wasn't enough. Travis thinks we need about 4 more to get a good cover. We'll have to save that for another day. I'm going to bed!

Brown Family Update

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd give you all an update on what we've been up to. I'm planning a couple new posts to be coming soon that include pictures of missing teeth and the kids reciting some of their Bible verses from Awanas.

First of all, things are going well with Waffle. He is adjusting to life in our house and is getting used to some of our house rules. He is pretty laid back and very silly, so he fits right in! The kids love him. Not sure about Travis. I think he'll warm up to Waffle soon. Maybe when the dog quits pooping in the house (almost there on that effort!) and barking at night (again, almost there- totally getting better!) The biggest problem that we have with Waffle is that Aiden is allergic to dog saliva. We never thought Aiden would be allergic to dogs because he has been around them with no problem, but I guess he's never been licked by one either! As long as Waffle doesn't lick Aiden, he's ok. If he does lick Aiden, then Aiden gets hives where he got licked. Waffle will soon be on a "No lick" training program once we get the pooping thing under control!

School is back in session for me. I have one class this semester and then one class over the summer and then I'm done! Yippee! I'll spend the fall trying to figure out which Masters program to apply for. My biggest excitement in this is that I'll have somewhat of a social life back by the beginning of August! I'm really looking forward to having the time to help with the kid's Awana's program next year.

Aiden is doing well in his Speech class. He is really speaking more clearly and many of our family members noticed it when we were home for Christmas. However, with him speaking more clearly, his speech path has noticed a few problems with his language development. They are going to re-evaluate him in April in order to start working on the problems that she is finding with his language. The good news is that there is still more than a year until he starts kindergarten and he will surely be done with speech services before he starts kindergarten.

Sophie has lost her two front teeth. I am planning spring pictures soon because I think having pics of both my kids missing their front teeth will be just plain cute! I'll be sending those out as soon as I get them (and as soon as my free time allows.)

Sophie has just one basketball game left for this year. She has had so much fun with it! I'm sure she will be playing basketball for the next couple of years for those of you who didn't get to come and see her play. Just mark your calendars for a weekend in January of February next year!

The kids and Travis thoroughly enjoyed a visit by Grandpa Charlie, Grandma Dana, Aunt Connie and "Cousin Kristi" (yes, that's how you are frequently referred to in our house!) They all got to watch Sophie show of her mad b-ball skills and then enjoyed an afternoon at the Incredible Pizza Company. There are no photos to share becuase unfortunately, I was home sleeping while the excitement was taking place. I do know that Grandma Dana took several photos (Yay for grandmas!- Photo taking is not a task to be left up to daddys or grandpas!) Maybe she will e-mail me some of her photos and I can post them (hint, hint).

I'm sure there's more that I should update you on, but alas, my brain is malfunctioning...again. I'll post pics soon. I know you'd rather see those than listen to me ramble on and on and on.

Introducing Waffle

Waffle is the newest member of our family! He is a 6 month old Shichon (Bichon/Shih Tzu) who's owner couldn't take care of him anymore. He has such a cute personality. He is very feisty, but loves to cuddle! The kids are super excited to have him! I knew he was ours as soon as I met him and then the guy said the magic words "already housebroken." I was sold!

Snow Day

Sophie and I made our Valentine cookies today since we got so much snow they had to cancel school (just really less than an inch, can't really see why they canceled school. The teachers must have some desire to work extra in March.)

Aiden was going to help, but he refused to clean his room this morning. He has really been testing our patience recently. I'm hoping this is just a phase, but overall, he's just not nearly as compliant a child as Sophie. I keep reminding myself not to compare them. They are two totally different people! Travis and I are really trying to find out how to deal with his "I'm gonna do what I want, when I want" attitude. He's also been throwing some major fits lately. It's really getting old, especially leaving him out of the fun stuff like making cookies, but what's a mom to do? The thought is that eventually, he'll realize that if he just cleans his room, he'll get to make the cookies. Last time we had this fight, it took 24 hours of major family fun sans Aiden to get him to finally clean his room. This time, it took just about 4 hours, most of the progress as we were just finishing the cookies. I guess 20 fewer hours is progress! I'm open for ideas and suggestions on dealing with a tough 4 year-old!!!