Our little Brown house

To the beach

2011-08-08T21:12:00.000-05:00

Well my friends summer is almost over and not only was it a break from school but I also took an unintentional break from this space. We had a very full and fun summer and the reality of it soon coming to an end is making me a little sad. I am back ready to recap our summer adventures and share the excitement and ~~great big huge~~ wee bit of anxiety that I am feeling over kindergarten starting for Hannah on Wednesday. I am working on a post with some summer highlights but in the mean time I thought I would share some pictures from our recent trip to the beach...it was slightly too eventful as you will see.

The first few days at the beach were full of family and typical beach fun. As we usually do in the summer, we shared a beach house with Mom, Bekah and Rachel and several of my mother's sisters and their families stayed in houses close by. Hannah and Lily played with their cousins pretty much from sun up to sun down.

They spent lots of time digging in the sand, splashing in the waves, and just exploring the beach.

Then (cue the screeching record) a few days after we arrived we had a little accident...

Hannah fell on the porch of our beach house and we ended up at the local emergency room getting our worst fears confirmed...she had a broken arm. They put a splint put on her arm and told us to have a cast put on when we got back to Birmingham. Hannah perked up once she heard that you can choose the color of your cast and bright pink was an option. Thankfully we did not have to cut our trip short but we did have to get a little creative with what we could do since playing in the ocean was out. My sweet Hannah was such a good sport about it and did not let a broken arm ruin her fun. She flew kites, scoured seaweed for little sea creatures, and even shook hands with a dolphin.

It was not a perfect trip but we made the most of our time at the beach, broken arm and all.

Puddles, parades and a graduation

2011-05-31T22:59:00.000-05:00

Last week, before this awful heat wave hit, Lily, Hannah and I sat on the porch and watched an afternoon thunderstorm roll into our neighborhood. The rain didn't last long and after it stopped Hannah and Lily asked to go outside to do some puddle jumping. Happy to enjoy the cool breeze and to not have to water the garden that night I told them to grab their flip flops.

They found some water to splash in and I watched as daredevil Lily jumped in the water and mud while Hannah, in true Hannah form, decided to keep herself dry and clean and drop rocks in the water instead.

From puddles to parades...I forgot that I have not shared the pictures that I took earlier this month at our annual neighborhood parade. The parade is held right down the street from our house and afterwards the street is blocked off for a neighborhood band party. It is always a good evening visiting with neighbors and friends and enjoying the music and rides for the kids.

We also recently celebrated Hannah's graduation from her 4K program. It was in the church and included prayers and songs by the two 4K classes at her school. Hannah sang her little heart out and kept me smiling with how she rounded her mouth like a professional (you can see this in one of the pictures below :)) Afterwards they had a little reception in the parish hall with cake and punch.

I had such mixed emotions over this day because I know that next up is real deal 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. five day school. Life is changing and I know that there will be so many wonderful things in our future but I have to tell you that I am really having a hard time getting ready for this next step.

I was grateful that Lily had Mother's Day Out the week after graduation so Hannah and I could have a little time together. I left it up to Hannah to decide what she wanted to do with our time. She had some birthday money and wanted to buy a new book so we ended up at the book store having hot cocoa and scones before we made her purchase. Afterwards we bought new flip flops for both Hannah and Lily and had lunch at Zoe's. Our next outing started with a breakfast of pancakes and french toast at Another Broken Egg Cafe (can you tell we don't get to go out to eat much these days?) and then it was off to visit the dinosaur exhibit at the McWane Center. I took a few pictures on my phone...

It was nice to calm my heart a little with these two "Mommy and Hannah" dates as Hannah calls them. Thankfully I have the summer to prepare for kindergarten and I am going to try to make the most of these next couple of months of being at home with both of my girls.

Jam packed weekend

2011-05-24T21:48:00.000-05:00

We had a jam packed weekend literally full of making jam, planting our garden, fishing, farmer's markets, and homemade playhouses.

We woke up early Saturday morning and while Lily and I went to our local farmer's market for some fresh strawberries and peaches to make jam, Hannah and Matt left to spend the morning together fishing.

The fishermen came back empty handed but they had a great time and Hannah did get a few nibbles.

Lily and I collected all our necessities for making our jam Saturday morning so Sunday afternoon we were ready to go. Hannah and Lily helped me cut up the strawberries although I really wasn't sure that we were going to have any strawberries left with these two assisting.

I love having homemade jam in the fridge for morning toast and we will keep some for gift giving throughout the year. Later this week, if I can keep Hannah from eating all of our peaches, peach jam is next on the agenda.

In our "spare" time over the weekend we finally planted our garden. I have been meaning to do this for many weeks now but just have not found the time. I promised myself it would get done and so we pulled on our gardening gloves and got to work.

We started by adding some compost that we have been preparing in our little backyard composter for months now to our soil.

And then we planted several types of peppers, tomatoes, okra, eggplant, herbs, cucumbers, cantaloupe in the garden. We left a few empty spaces that we will fill with other veggies that love the summer heat in the coming months. Here is the finished garden.

In the process of working on the garden Hannah's imagination took over and she decided she wanted to take some of the wood slats we were no longer using as dividers in the garden and turn them into a playhouse. Matt thought this was a great idea (can we say two peas in a pod) and immediately got out his drill and a dropcloth. The playhouse had more of a tent look but it was a fun spot for Hannah and Lily to play.

A fun and productive weekend...I couldn't ask for much more than that!

On Stage Again

2011-05-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

I don't normally post twice in one day (lately I actually don't post twice in one week :)) but I had another free minute and wanted to share that Hannah wasn't the only one on stage this week. Lily had her annual school performance where she and the other children in her Mother's Day Out program performed the songs that they have been singing at music time. Lily was front and center and she did a great job of sitting and singing. I loved the smile on her face when she looked out into the audience and saw me. That little smile just makes my heart so happy.

Lily's biggest fan was sitting in the front row with some of her friends.

Each class also does a board showing off some of the art work that they created over the year.

Lily's teacher Mrs. Gladis is so good with the kids and Lily absolutely loves her. There is nothing that makes me happier than to know that when I leave my children they are in good hands, and that is exactly how I feel with Mrs. Gladis. We are so blessed that she is in our lives.

Hope you are all having a good weekend!

On Stage

2011-05-07T13:21:00.000-05:00

Hello friends! I am finally back at the computer after a week of Matt taking over this space for his work. We are still sharing the office but he finally had some time to clear his 3 computers and other work off of the desk so that I could find my camera memory card reader. So far things are going well with Matt working from home. No commute means a little more time with us, which is always good, and Hannah and Lily are working hard on using quiet voices when Daddy is on the phone. It is taking some adjusting, but so far things seeming to be going pretty smoothly.

This week Hannah stepped on stage for her first ever dance recital. It was so much fun to watch as the different things that she has learned all year came together in this performance. I loved how low pressure everything was and that the girls even performed on stage with their teachers. I was amazed that there was not one child the whole night that was scared or in tears with all of those eyes watching them. All of the children including Hannah were incredibly comfortable and seemed to have so much fun.

The recital was held at the Alabama Theatre, which was a beautiful backdrop for the performance. Hannah was pretty much awe struck over the whole experience and would probably dance on that stage every weekend if she could. We spent some time exploring this theatre after both the dress rehearsal and the recital. The details and decor of this historical building are amazing and it is a wonderful place to take photographs.

The night of the recital we sat high up in the third floor balcony in the front row. This was great for viewing and videoing but not so much for photographing. We were a little far away for my lens as you can tell in these pictures.

After the finale we retrieved our little ballerina and found some great places around the theater for pictures.

After this day I think that Hannah is going to love dance class even more than she already does. And can I just say that this mama who danced for 15 years of her life could not be happier. Not to rush the months along but this performance has given me visions of sugar plum fairies and I am already thinking about how much fun it is going to be to take Hannah to see her first Nutcracker performance in December!

After the storm

2011-04-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

The past two days have been a time of sadness and destruction for so many around the south especially here in Alabama. Two nights ago devastating tornadoes hit our great state and left houses destroyed and over 200 people dead. We spent much this past Wednesday night listening to tornado sirens blare and reading books in our "safe place." Thankfully our area of town had very little damage and I am so grateful that we are safe and sound but many others were not so lucky. Sadly, this included the city of Fultondale where Matt's office is located.

We got a phone call Wednesday night that a tornado actually hit Matt's office. No one could get close enough during the night to actually confirm this because of the damage all around. Matt left very early yesterday morning and when he finally could get to his building this is what he found.

Thankfully the storms came after everyone had gone home for the evening and the office was empty.

This is the view inside from his office.

And from where the front doors used to be.

Matt spent yesterday afternoon alongside coworkers trying to salvage anything they could. They were told to get anything of value out because looters would come to take anything that is left. I am so disgusted and really do not understand how there are people in this world who will take from those who are already suffering and have lost so much.

Hannah and Lily are out of school this week and so I took them to Florence yesterday to stay with Mom so that Matt could work from home if he needed. It was hard leaving Birmingham and watching as we passed the Fire and Rescue caravans racing with their lights flashing to help those in need. Tornadoes hit several cities that we passed through on our drive to Florence and it was heart breaking to see up close homes that were destroyed right next to the road. People just standing around looking helpless and so very sad.

Please keep in your prayers those who have lost their homes and possessions, the souls of those who were killed and also those who prey on people who are already dealing with such loss and destruction.

Good night dear friends and family. I hope you are all safe and sound at home with your loved ones.

five

2011-04-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

As soon as Hannah turned four last April the countdown to turning five started. I am pretty sure this is how it will be for many years to come. I want time to slow down and she wants nothing more than for time to pass quickly.

My little one is so excited that she is finally five years old. To be honest, five is a number I am having a little trouble coming to terms with. I think it is because, first of all, time is flying by (as many mothers before me told me it would) and also because five means kindergarten is right around the corner. Kindergarten = five days of school for us and I am trying to prepare myself for this entry into real deal every day school.

This sweet girl is growing so quickly and Matt and I often talk of how much joy, fun and laughter she brings to our home. I think if I had to sum up Hannah in one word it would be joyful. She is so happy in everything that she does and there is just something about her that brightens up a room. She loves her friends and family and is constantly telling us how much she loves us whether it is in her words or works of art.

This year has brought a new ~~obsession~~ interest in dinosaurs. Every week she is allowed to check out one book from her school library and every week it is about a dinosaur. I am constantly amazed at the words coming out of her mouth as she identifies every dinosaur that we see from memory and announces whether it is a carnivore, herbivore, etc. Santa left Hannah some wonderful 3d puzzles this year and she and her dad worked hard to put them together. I had to laugh after they put them together and she informed Matt that she wanted to paint them pink.

We celebrated Hannah's fifth year over the course of several days. Hannah's birthday morning started with a request for waffles and breakfast in bed.

On her actual birthday we had a family celebration with pizza for dinner and cake for dessert. Mom was in town and we invited our Birmingham family members Lauren and Chase and Jessie and Matt and their girls Ruthie and Elsie over for a little party.

Friday was Hannah's school party, which is always so much fun for her. On your birthday you get to wear a special birthday crown and have a little party.

Saturday was a princess garden party at our house with some neighbors and girl friends from school. We have stuck to family birthday parties in the past, so this was our first party to really include friends in the festivities. I let Hannah decide the theme of her party and was a little surprised by her request for a princess party. She is not really into all things princess but she has been to several princess themed birthday parties and she does like to dress up in her "princess attire". So with the theme chosen I got to work on the food and activities.

Hannah welcomed her friends by giving each one a wand when they arrived. These wands were used to pop bubbles that were floating around the back yard.

After the bubble fun all of the princesses were invited over to a table where they could create their very own princess spoon puppet. There was lots of different yarn, paper, and hats for the girls to choose from and I thought they all turned out great.

After the princess puppets were complete all the girls came over to a blanket in the grass to listen to the story The Princess and the Pea. Only "true" princesses were invited to Hannah's party, so after the story we had to test each one to make sure that she was indeed a real princess. I brought two pillows outside and placed a "pea" under one of the pillows. The girls took turns sitting on each of the pillows to see if they could feel the pea. They then had to tell the group which pillow it was under and I would check to see if they were right. They each guessed correctly and we knew that each one was a true princess :).

No princess garden party would be complete without tea sandwiches, little blueberry muffins, fruit and cupcakes. These were served with pink lemonade on picnic blankets in the grass.

Finally, with Easter just around the corner, instead of just passing out favors we put the favors in Easter eggs and let everyone have a little Easter egg hunt in the yard. To make it a little more "princess-y" we hid a glass slipper instead of a golden egg.

I took Hannah and her friends around to the front for a group picture while the moms hid the eggs around the back yard. And as soon as we were done the hunt began!

The party was so fun and Hannah really felt special with so many of her friends at our house to help celebrate her birthday.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention one of the best parts of the day. We had the party at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday and Bekah and Rachel were supposed to drive down from Nashville Friday night. We had awful storms come through all day Friday, tornado sirens and all, and so the weather was too dangerous for them to drive through. We were really disappointed that they couldn't be here but of course wanted them to stay safe and sound. Well, right as the party is starting who should walk through our front door but these two faces...

They woke up extra early and drove three hours to surprise Hannah and the rest of us too. Can I just say I love my sisters! They get the best aunts of the year award from us especially since they had to leave right after the party to get back to Nashville for an event that night!

It was quite a birthday and I think that about covers the fun.

I am going to start a tradition of a birthday quiz with my girls each year. I look forward to seeing how the answers to these questions change as they grow. Here are Hannah's answers to her first ever birthday quiz...

Favorite food: Pasta and cupcakes
Favorite TV show: Dinosaur Train
Favorite book: Any dinosaur book
Favorite color: Pink and rainbow (yep rainbow ;))
Favorite thing to do: Play with friends

Happy birthday my sweet girl! We love you and are looking forward to seeing all the wonderful things that this year holds for you.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T21:21:00.000-05:00

We had a very low key but very happy Easter here at our little Brown house. Hannah and Lily are on the mend and feeling better with each passing hour. They both slept in this morning, which meant Matt and I could sleep in too! When they finally did roll out of bed they were greeted with some Easter treats left by the Easter Bunny last night.

Hannah is wearing the same pajamas that she wore for Christmas. She would wear nothing else last night saying she wore them for Santa so she had to wear them for the Easter Bunny. Nothing says Easter like wool red plaid pajamas. :)

At the beginning of Lent we made a crown of thorns out of a grapevine wreath and some toothpicks. Each time Hannah or Lily did a good deed or made a sacrifice they could pull one of the toothpicks out of the crown. Their goal was to have all the thorns removed by Easter.

The thorns were all gone this morning and the crown became an Easter centerpiece for our table to remind us of the beauty of this wonderful day.

I was a little worried about breakfast this morning with our new non-dairy, non-egg and non-peanut diet. Usually we break out the sausage balls (with cheese), cinnamon rolls (with milk and egg), and fruit for holiday breakfasts. With a little thought though we managed to still have a breakfast that felt somewhat special with real deal bacon, non-dairy, non-egg cinnamon muffins (via my new cookbook The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book) and some strawberries on the side.

After breakfast we went outside to hunt Easter eggs left by the Easter bunny in the backyard. We did not go to church this morning because of lingering germs and with Hannah and Lily still not feeling 100%. They were both in good spirits after breakfast and so I did coax them into putting on their Easter dresses to hunt eggs.

The Easter Bunny got a little creative this year with treats inside the Easter eggs. No more milk chocolate bunnies, m&ms, etc... Thankfully though, both the Easter bunny and I have discovered the yumminess of non-dairy chocolate chips.

These plus gummy fruit snacks and barrettes filled many of their eggs.

Oh, and funny how Hannah happened to find a land cruiser in one of the Easter eggs. I think that egg was somehow meant for Matt. :) The Easter Bunny knows us so well.

This was not our normal Easter but thankfully we were able to watch Mass on television and enjoy some quiet time at home. I am looking forward to next year when we will hopefully all be healthy and celebrating Easter morning at church in the congregation singing Alleluia and then eating our Easter meal surrounded by extended family and friends.

I hope that you all had a healthy and very blessed Easter day.

I am still alive (I think)

2011-04-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

I have had every intention of posting about my wonderful sweet favorite 5 year old daughter in the whole wide world and the exciting festivities that rang in her 5th year of life last week. It was such a fun birthday with family and friends and I have so much to write about but life took over this week and it sucked every bit of energy that I have out of me. Hannah's birthday post will come soon when I am in a little better state of mind.

This past week has been tough. It started Monday when I took Lily to be officially tested for her peanut allergy and found out that not only is she allergic to peanuts, but to eggs and milk as well. I was more than a little shocked and I am still trying to wrap my mind around cooking for Lily with no eggs and milk. So we received that news Monday afternoon and then that night Lily woke up with the unmistakable cough that comes with croup. There was no sleep that night between her fits of coughing, us running the shower to try to see if steam would help and rocking her pretty much all night trying to console her. As if that were not enough, Tuesday night Lily woke up with a 104 degree temperature and Matt and I were back in bathroom, this time putting her in a lukewarm bath trying to get her temp down. Thankfully we had medicine to help us that night. Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, Wednesday night Hannah threw up right before bed time and was up way in to the night with tummy troubles. Thursday and Friday were no better with Hannah's tummy problems and Lily's sickness. Lily continued to run a high fever and we were back at the doctor yesterday. All the drainage from Lily's croup had given her the beginnings of an ear infection, so we were prescibed some good medicine that has finally helped. After a really high temperature of over 104 last night, Lily's fever finally broke and she seems to be finally feeling better. Hannah seems to be improving too and so I am hoping that everyone will sleep soundly tonight so that when Easter arrives tomorrow my girls will be ready to hunt a few eggs and enjoy some quiet family time together.

All of this sickness during this week leading up to Easter has really put me in mind of how Mary must have felt watching her son suffer so profoundly before his death. It has been so hard watching poor Lily this week. Three nights we have been so close to taking her to the emergency room with her extremely high temperatures and breathing problems. At times truly being scared for her well being. As hard as this was to watch and experience as a mother, I can only imagine what Mary had to go through during the time leading up to Jesus' death. The pain that she must have felt watching the child that she loved so much suffer so horribly and knowing in her heart that he was going to die. I find so much comfort in Mary's strength as a mother and her faith in God and I am so glad that I have her example in times of trouble. She has provided me with much comfort this week and cannot tell you how thankful I am that Hannah and Lily seem to be on their way to better health.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter. I will leave you with these pictures I took today of Lily. I can't tell you how great it was to see a smile on her face again and I knew she was feeling better when the princess attire came back out of the closet...

March madness

2011-03-25T14:12:00.000-05:00

Time sure flies and I feel like we have been in the middle of our very own version of March madness around here. I have lots to catch you up on and I think I will start with our Spring Break adventures. To celebrate Spring Break Hannah, Lily and I packed up and headed to Nana's house. Nana was actually still in school (her Spring Break is in a couple of weeks) so we entertained ourselves during the day and were there to greet Nana as soon as she walked through the door each afternoon. Last week also happened to be sister B's Spring Break and so she met us in Florence for some quality family time.

We had lots of fun visiting the park, eating at some of our favorite hometown restaurants, shopping a little and just spending time together. Most importantly though Hannah and Lily were there to meet the newest member of the family... Dolly Francis.

Dolly Francis is a miniature Daschund and weighs a little over 3 pounds. Can you say tee-niny? Mom recently brought her home and has been anxiously awaiting a visit from her granddaughters so they could all meet. It was love at first sight for Hannah. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that Hannah wanted to stick Dolly Francis in her suitcase and bring her home with us.

Lily not so much. Lily actually did enjoy Dolly Francis too but from a distance. She was a little unsure of such a tiny dog running circles around her feet.

In other big news, this little Brown house is an official peanut free zone at least until further notice. Lily had her first peanut via a granola bar and pretty much immediately threw up and began having some trouble breathing. After talking with the nurse on call I took her to the emergency room at Children's Hospital where they immediately whisked us back to a room and gave my little Lils an epi shot and a breathing treatment.

Lily was almost immediately better thank goodness and after several hours of being monitored we were finally discharged. They sent us home with a prescription for our very own epinephrine shot that we have to have with her at all times and of course instructions to give her no more nuts. We have an appointment with an allergist next week to have her tested and will see where we go from here. No fun but Lily could not have been a better patient and she was sent home from the hospital with lots of stickers which made her very happy.

That's the big stuff and so I can spare you from another post that goes on and on and on, I will give you a quick rundown of the rest of the highlights of the past few weeks bullet style.

** We celebrated the 2 year anniversary of Lily's baptism last week with a little prayer service and our usual Dreamcakes cupcakes.

** I am in the process of working on a warm and fuzzy scarf even though I think Spring temperatures are here to stay.

** With the arrival of warm weather comes dresses and uncovered knees that are covered with bumps and bruises. We have been keeping this little bandaid lovin' girl's knees covered with Hello Kitty and kisses.

** We have pulled out our tent to get ready for a camping adventure that is hopefully in our near future. Hannah and Lily have also discovered that tents are great for playing house in the backyard.

There is oh so much more but I have to run and pick up Hannah from school so I will save the rest for another post. Happy weekend!

On(Off) the road adventure

2011-02-27T14:18:00.000-06:00

Many posts back I may have mentioned my husband's love of trail riding. For those of you unfamiliar with the term "trail riding" it means taking a hopefully four wheel drive vehicle off road through marked trails down winding dirt roads, over rocks, through mud, and across streams to sightsee in the great outdoors. Ever since Matt's love of "riding the trails" began I have never been able to go on one of these rides because I was either pregnant or home with a baby. Now that Lily is old enough Matt talked me into taking the girls with us on a family-friendly ride with several other friends with children. The ride started in Sylacauga, AL and ended at Mt. Cheaha, about 45 miles off road along a mountain ridge through the Talladega National Forest. Keep in mind that this is an all day type of thing meaning a four year old and a two year old strapped in a car-seat for hours and hours while we drive around in the woods. I have to tell you I was a little skeptical and a little more nervous. So to compensate I packed every snack and toy I could think of that might help to survive the trip.

We left early on a very cold Saturday morning. It was lightly snowing outside but thankfully we were heading south and it was supposed to warm up a bit.

The trip down was great. Hannah and Lily always think it is exciting when they get to ride in Daddy's truck but we had a long day ahead of us and I still wasn't sure how things were going to go.

**I should probably put a disclaimer here before I show the rest of my pictures. This is what the window directly in front of me looked like and photographing around it was sometimes a little difficult. It has been this way for about a year now and I am hoping that it will be fixed before we do this again....Oh Maaaaaatttt my favorite husband are you reading this?**

We made the trip with two other families and really enjoyed our time with them.

We spent the day going downhill, uphill, over streams and rocks, and around curvy, winding dirt trails...

and I have to say I really enjoyed it all. It was nice to be outside on a cool winter's day in the middle of the woods exploring these trails.

I also loved driving through the woods filled with browns and grays of the trees, leaves and ground and then suddenly being surprised at the pops of color you could find.

But what really this trip worth it - besides the family time of course - were the views.

Even on a cloudy overcast day the views were great and Hannah's "wow" at such a site was really nice.

As for the car ride, I was completely amazed at how great Hannah and Lily did in the car for 9 hours. The snacks and toys came in handy on the ride home but for the most part my girls enjoyed looking out the window...

showing me "abstract drawings" of everything they saw...

exploring in the woods...

and picnicking on Daddy's tailgate...

We stopped several times throughout the day to stretch our legs and pose for a few pictures in some of our favorite spots.

Toward the end of the trip Lily started telling me that her belly button was hurting. After hearing this a couple of times I got a little worried that she might not feel so great and so we left the group and took a shortcut back to the main road. We were all tired and ready to get home but thankfully even the ride back to Birmingham was a nice one full of some "ready to get out of this car" kind of silliness.

Matt was already talking about our next adventure on the way home so I am sure we will be on(off) the road again soon.

Sharing the Love

2011-02-15T21:08:00.000-06:00

I hope you all had Valentine's Day filled with lots of love and lots of fun! Our day was full of both and the fun included class party duties for both Hannah and Lily at school.

I was in charge of cupcakes for Hannah's party and so this little face...

and these little hands....

helped me to prepare candy cane toppers...

for these little cupcakes...

We also made our own valentine's for classmates. In the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day I saw a ton of handmade valentine's that I wanted to try. I ended up, like last year, borrowing our idea from Skip to My Lou...

They were a little more work than I thought they were going to be but it was for a good cause.

Matt was actually out of town for Valentine's Day :( and so Hannah and Lily were filled in for their dad. They are pretty cute valentines if you ask me...

They are also pretty funny Valentines...

and are always reminding me that I must be on my toes when I am alone for several days by myself with them. They each got a new pony for a little Valentine's Day surprise and Hannah requested that, since she sat so nicely for the above pictures, I take some photos of her friends too. The things I do for my pictures.

From left to right that's Toola Roola, Flip (the cat), Sweetie Belle, and Pinkie Pie. Sweetie Belle and Pinkie Pie are the newest members of our family. They need their hair brushed I know.

Happy day after Valentine's Day!

Celebrations and Page Turners

2011-02-11T12:57:00.000-06:00

I thought I would mention that Matt and I are celebrating seven years of married life this week! Matt came home with these on our anniversary and they have been adding a little cheer to our kitchen ever since.

I also want to wish Matt's dad a happy, happy birthday. He so graciously agreed seven years ago to share his birthday with our wedding day.

Ok, so from anniversaries and birthdays to books. We have been hitting the local libraries lately and have managed to find some really great books. So good, in fact, that I thought I would share what we are reading.

We have been talking and doing a little planning for our spring garden and so we decided to take a trip to the library at The Birmingham Botanical Gardens. There we found the book How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry.

It is a great story about a groundhog who, after being caught by a squirrel taking things from the squirrel's garden, learns how to plant his very own garden. Hannah loved this book so much that we read it every night for about two weeks. I actually brought this book with me the other day to read to Hannah's class. I was the Mystery Reader at her school, which means that I surprised her and her classmates by coming to school and reading to them. It was so much fun seeing the look on Hannah's face when I walked through her classroom door and she loved sharing this book with her friends.

(I should probably mention that it was also pajama day at school.) I brought along a planted lima bean for each child so that they could watch a plant start to grow at home. Our little bean is really growing...

The illustrations in this book are beautiful and Hannah especially loved the pages describing insects...

and the pages illustrating different veggies from little sprout to ready to pick.

Every time we read the book we had to stop at these pages and name each insect or each vegetable and exactly what was occurring. It is a good thing the groundhog saw his shadow this year because I think this little one is ready to garden!

Next up is the book The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader.

It is a Caldecott winner and we chose this book in anticipation of one of our recent snow days. It is a great book about what animals do during the winter, whether it is hibernate, migrate or just stay put.

This is a fun book because Hannah really notices now which animals are around when we take walks....crows, squirrels, cardinals, etc. It is also fun to talk about who is sleeping under the ground in our very own backyard.

Lastly, one of our very favorite books that we happened upon at the library is Can You Hear It?. (sorry for the bad picture but it is in a plastic sleeve)

I love this book so much that I am thinking about buying it for our home library. Can You Hear It? is a "listen and look" book that was put out by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book shows 13 pictures and each image corresponds with a piece of music on the CD that comes with the book. So for instance, Hannah and Lily looked at a Japanese print of a bee hovering over flowers while listening to The Flight of the Bumblebee.

Each image has guided questions and a CD track number that told us exactly what sounds to listen for in the music. It really is great!

Ok, so I feel a little like the guy from Reading Rainbow (one of my very favorite shows growing up by the way) but these are some of our very favorites right now and I wanted to remember what types of books I am reading to Hannah and Lily. We would love to know what you are reading too so let us know if you have a suggestion for what we should check out on our next library visit.

More Snow

2011-02-10T14:15:00.000-06:00

Last night the snow rained down on us yet again and left us with about an inch or so of really soft, powdery white stuff. I took a picture from inside my warm and toasty house last night of the snow pouring down on our backyard.

I love the snow at night when it is all neat and clean and pretty in the light of the street. Hannah finally went to sleep with one of her blinds open so that she could see the snow falling. She informed me that she was going to wake up early to make footprints in the snow before it melted away.

Thankfully early to her this morning was about 8:00am so after breakfast we bundled up and braved the cold to play. Snow just never gets old around here.

Matt came home for lunch and we bundled up again for a quick snowball fight in the backyard. (The sun was coming out so we had to make one last effort to play before it all melted away.)

Matt had fun hurling snowballs at me but I can throw too :)...

I am not scared to send him back to work soaking wet and freezing cold. Is that mean? :)

Hope you are having a fun filled day too!

Old Man Winter & Thrifty Fun

2011-02-04T21:43:00.000-06:00

Old man winter has been showing us his might the last couple of days with some cold temperatures and icy precipitation. Never fear though we have been keeping our toes by the fire and a warm cup of tea (for mama) or hot cocoa in hand.

We had a little reprieve from the cold last weekend with a peek at some springlike temperatures. We, along with pretty much everyone else around, quickly made our way outside to enjoy the warm fresh air. Hannah and Lily were excited to put on their helmets and ride their bikes without that bothersome extra layer of coats and mittens.

The warmth was short-lived but it was nice. I am trying to do my best not to wish away the winter but days like last weekend make it really hard.

Last week while the girls were at school I stopped by a local thrift store and stocked up on some double duty warm and cold weather fun for Hannah.

I found each of these for a $1.25 on the game shelf and could not pass them up. We spent part of last week's warm weekend outside on our sidewalk playing Clue Jr. and finding out exactly who stole the missing piece of cake. The next day we sat in the sun on the porch putting together this map of the good ole US of A.

These games also came in handy when the cold and rain decided to reappear this week. One very rainy afternoon Hannah and I sat in her room and I introduced her to the ever so fun game of Scrabble. I grew up with my mom playing this game (the adult version) and I think it is so much fun. I think it is great that they have a kid version and did I mention that I bought this game for $1.25 brand new. Bargain!

I love a good board game (can you tell :)) and I love some good quality one on one time even more.

Ok, I have got to get back to packing and preparing. We are going on an off road adventure tomorrow in Matt's truck and I have lots to do to get ready. This will be the longest Lily has been in the car in quite some time so wish us luck! Have a great weekend!!

Snow and Ice, Ice and Snow

2011-01-23T13:03:00.000-06:00

The cold just won't seem to go away around here and so I thought I would post some pictures of the ice storm that passed through a couple of weekends ago. As a survivor of the ice storm of 1994 I can tell you that I was a little fearful of what this weather might bring. In 1994 my house was without power for 10, yes TEN!, days and even though we were safe and warm with relatives I do not remember that time with much fondness. Thankfully, Matt made a last minute trip around town and found the supplies we needed just in case.

We woke up Monday morning to way less snow than predicted but also to our city shut down because of ice. Thankfully the power lines were not frozen but the roads were and so, with no where to go, we headed outside to explore the icy wonderland. This was the ice covered path out of our house...

It was such a strange day because it really was like everything stopped and there was nothing to do but stay home and enjoy some family time. I liked it...I liked it a lot.

This is our friend "Shhhhhh". He is on a neighbor's tree and he seemed to be speaking to us all as we walked past him with no sound other than the ice crunching under our feet and the occasional squeal of someone sledding down a hill.

This was what we found when we made it to the little shops at the end of our street.

Not surprisingly, everything was closed and I imagine it stayed that way all day long. Hannah and Lily had some fun exploring and enjoyed that even the middle of the street was their playground.

When we made it home we found some friends sledding down the hill in front of their house on a boogie board. Boogie board: good for surf and sand AND snow and ice. Hannah, only slightly terrified, joined in on the fun.

Lily happily watched perched on Matt's hip with absolutely no desire to try sliding down a hill with the other kids. Soon enough though we were all frozen and ready to thaw out with some hot chocolate so we headed inside.

While we were out looking around I took some photographs of the ice. I thought it was pretty spectacular especially since this is not something we see a lot of around here. The trees, the mailboxes, the cars were all covered in this beautiful coat of ice and here is some of what we saw...

Just looking at these pictures makes me cold. I hope you all are having a warm and cozy weekend!

Apple Bread with a side of Lily

2011-01-13T15:13:00.000-06:00

Santa left me a new cookbook under the tree this year and I been in the kitchen testing out some recipes over the past couple of weeks. The cookbook is called Apples for Jam and I highly recommend it as a great addition to your kitchen library. I actually checked it out from our local library last year and, after making some yummy banana bread and a meatloaf that Matt said was "restaurant quality", knew that I should put it at the top of my Christmas wish list. I have now tested out the fried buttermilk chicken and the pan fried potatoes with rosemary and sage, both of which are fried in olive oil and are super good. We also loved the grilled beef and bread kebabs and chicken sauteed with cheese and milk. Everything I have made so far is simple, relatively healthy and very good. The author Tessa Kiros is all about cooking as a way to both nourish your family and to show your love for those who sit around your table. So far I have not found a recipe we did not all like, and that really says a lot around here.

Anyhoo, last Friday I needed something good and quick to take to a church guild meeting so I pulled out Apples for Jam and Hannah and I spent some time together making the Apple Bread with sugar and cinnamon topping.

My lovely assistant Hannah helped me peel, sift, butter and stir...

We started by using my other favorite Christmas gift to peel our apples. If you don't have this Pampered Chef apple peeler corer thingamabob you should totally get one. We had our apples ready - peeled, cored and cut - in about 2 minutes flat. This gadget comes in handy big time if you make apple butter. I borrowed my sister's in November and had 15 apples peeled and ready to go in less than 10 minutes. Oh, and I peeled them while sitting in a chair and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. Can't beat that!

With our apples ready to go we sat them aside, beat together 3/4 cup of sugar and a stick + 3 tablespoons of butter until fluffy and added 2 eggs to the mixture...

After the eggs were beaten in well we sifted all our dry ingredients into the mix. A cup of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.

After everything was mixed together I added my apples and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. We stirred it all up and put it in our buttered pan.

For the topping we mixed a 1/3 of a cup of lightly packed brown sugar and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon together...

Put this on top of our bread mixture and popped it in the oven...

This has to bake for 45 minutes so Hannah and I had a little time to wait before our bread was ready. Hannah headed to her room for some rest time while I went to clean up the kitchen. It was about this time that Lily woke up from her nap and I heard her calling for me. I went to her room and opened the door to these on the floor...

I, of course, ran over to her bed to make sure that disaster had not struck if you know what I mean. Thankfully her diaper was dry and she was proudly grinning ear to ear. She then informed me that she had taken her diaper off. I told her I was quite aware of that fact. S-T-I-N-K-E-R.

Once Lily was again fully clothed and I had gotten all the cuddles I could get out of her I went to the kitchen to clean up while she had a little snack. We timed it about perfectly because once all of this was done the bread was ready.

Hannah devoured it and Matt called it "maybe the best thing he had ever put in his mouth." I would call that a success wouldn't you?!

Here is the recipe in case you feel the need to run to your kitchen and make this pronto. *I put my comments in red alongside the recipe. Also, I left the nuts out of ours because we don't give the girls nuts yet...long story. In hindsight since I made two loaves I wish I had made one with the nuts and one without.

Scant 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 pund plus 3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I bumped this amount up to about 1 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (I didn't have this so I left it out)
salt
about 2 apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely grated (I put them in chopped)
2/3 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
2/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 12 x 4-inch loaf pan. Beat together the sugar and butter until fluffy. Add the eggs, and beat them in well. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom, and cinnamon in, and add a pinch of salt. Mix well. Add the apples, walnuts, and vanilla, and mix those through well. Scrape the mixture into the pan.

For the topping, mix together the walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon, and then scatter abundantly over the top of the batter. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top is crusty brown and a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Check after 30 minutes and cover the top with foil if it is already quite brown.

Cool slightly before turning out carefully. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

December - where oh where did you go?

2010-12-30T23:13:00.000-06:00

Our December was not exactly as picture perfect as I envisioned it when I wrote my last post. Sickness struck soon after and then it hit again and again. We have been through 4 antibiotics, about 52 bottles of tylenol and motrin, and lots of orange juice, ice cream and hot tea. Thankfully we were all feeling fine by Christmas eve and, for the other few days of December that we were well, we did manage some Christmas fun.

I don't waste any time getting Christmas decorations up, so the day after Thanksgiving our preparations began. Our mantel and our tree helped to lift our spirits all month long with their twinkling lights and soft glow.

Hannah made a sweet Mary for her class Christmas program and of course "Pink Baby," as Hannah calls her, made a wonderful baby Jesus. All the girls in the 4K classes were Mary and the boys were Joseph. Hannah and her friends sang Christmas hymns and prayers and really helped prepare our hearts for Christmas.

Later that week some of our friends down the street had us over for milk and cookies with Santa. It was such a treat to hear the big man himself read "The Night Before Christmas."

Here are Hannah and Lily with Santa. Lily was absolutely terrified of him but at the very end of the party I got her to stand sort of near his knee for a split second in exchange for a sucker. Of course, smiles were a little too much to ask for in that moment. Lily is still talking about how Santa gave her a sucker though. Suckers and candy canes...probably Lily's favorite part of Christmas :)

Other than a trip to look at Christmas lights with hot cocoa in hand and gingerbread cookie making that was about it for the Brown family pre-Christmas memory book this year.

Thankfully, though, by Christmas Eve everyone's spirits were lifted and we managed to make it to Christmas Eve Mass healthy and happy.

After a quiet and restful night we woke up Christmas morning to all the excitement and wonder that this special day brings for little ones. Candy before breakfast...

a surprise doll house made by mommy and daddy...

and a certain 4 year olds' Christmas wish for snow granted!...

It was just enough snow for a light dusting on the ground but it was a white Christmas nonetheless. Hannah went out early on to test her new umbrella. Her Christmas wish list only included two things (besides snow) this year...an umbrella and a pink fishing pole. She was very excited to see that Santa left her both under the tree.

Lily didn't really remember snow so we had fun watching her explore the cold white powdery stuff that her sister was so excited about.

And together they built this little snowman (aka. Candy Cane). He finally melted away yesterday and Lily is still not sure what to make of the fact that he is gone. She has looked up and down the street for him and Hannah keeps explaining that "he will be back again some day." :)

After a fun Christmas morning together and some afternoon rest time the fun started all over with a visit from Bebe and Grandad. They stayed for dinner and we had some special last minute guests join us as well. My friend Beth called to say she and her fiance Shawn's flight to Portland was delayed and she wanted to stop in and visit. Beth is a good friend from college and I had not seen her in quite some time so we invited them to join us for Christmas dinner. It was such a special day and this unexpected visit made it all the better. I loved having those faces around the dinner table and it will be one of my favorite memories this year. I could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate Jesus' birth and I am so very thankful that our month was able to end on such a wonderful note. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas as well!!!

It was a good one...

2010-12-03T14:48:00.000-06:00

Our tree is trimmed, our Advent wreath is out and we have our first visit with Santa scheduled for tomorrow but I don't want to get to all of that holiday cheer before sharing a few of this year's favorite Thanksgiving memories. We had a great time hosting everyone here at our house and I am pretty sure that no one left hungry. My two favorite turkeys loved every minute of our festive and bustling house...

I think they wish that all of our guests could just move in our house and live with us full time! We had a full and very special Thanksgiving starting with morning parade watching...

then a little later at "entertain the kids while the turkey is cooking" storytime...

and finally at post-turkey lingering at the table...

The food was great and was more than plentiful with each of our guests contributing to the feast. From appetizer...

to 18 lb turkey...

to many desserts...

It was delicious!!! We were so thankful for the food but most thankful for the company...

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving full of good food and lots of family too! Now on to Advent and Christmas!

Gettin' Ready

2010-11-22T15:32:00.000-06:00

We are preparing for a large crew of guests here at our little Brown house this week to celebrate Turkey Day!

I think that I have mentioned a few ~~bazillion~~ times before that we LOVE the holidays around here and hosting our families for Thanksgiving is such fun for us. Now don't get me wrong, I can get a little stressed, (just ask my sweet and oh-so accomodating hubby) but I try to get things organized and started early so that the stress stays to a minimum.

The decorating is mostly done with our cornucopia taking center stage...

along with our thankful tree...

Each night after supper we write something we are thankful for on one of the maple leaves and add it to our tree. I really like these branches because once we are done with Thanksgiving we will switch gears and use it for our Jesse tree.

I am loving the fact that Hannah and Lily are home with me this week and they are helping with all the preparations. Hannah came home from her school Thanksgiving feast with this cute hat and tom tom....

I love the Indian name she chose for herself...Lily Flower. Wonder where that came from? :)

I am trying to do my best to not rush this week away. The holidays always seem to fly by so we are trying to slow things down and make the most of each one. With that in mind we are making sure to take some time out this week and make our own fun Thanksgiving day crafts that I will share later. Hannah and Lily are also enjoying spending some time with their new Thanksgiving books that arrived in the mail last week from Bebe and Grandad...

I hope you are all enjoying the start of your Thanksgiving week as much as we are!!!!!

two

2010-11-16T22:58:00.000-06:00

Last week we celebrated Lily's second birthday. I honestly cannot believe that two years have passed since the birth of this sweet little one...

The year between a first and second birthday is an amazing one to me. Lily has changed so much since this photo was taken one year ago...

Soon after that picture was taken Lily took her first steps...and she hasn't looked back ever since. This child spends most of her days running from place to place, mostly on the heels of her big sister. My babe is tiny, weighing in at her 2 year check-up at 21 1/2 lbs, but what she lacks in weight she makes up for with her giant personality.

Lily is very sensitive and oh so very sweet. She is such a talker, loves the word "no" and really prefers to have things own way :). This little one is opinionated about absolutely everything, from which cup she drinks out of, to what she wears (and who puts it on her)...

Lily likes hugs and kisses, but they have to be quick because she has things to do and can't be stopped for too long. She loves to read books, play puzzles and play with her baby doll, but mostly she prefers to be outside in the swing, on a walk, or digging in the garden.

Lily goes back and forth between being outgoing and being a little shy around strangers. She becomes little miss show off when she is wearing these...

We bought these shoes for her recently and if she has them on watch out. Lily will stick her foot out in front of you and leave it there until you comment on her "parkly shoes." She did this the other day while we were out shopping... stopping each person we passed by sticking her foot out in front of them and waiting for them to take notice of her shoes. She can work a crowd for sure.

Probably my favorite time with Lily is each Monday and Wednesday when I pick her up from Mother's Day Out. Lily and Hannah's school is affiliated with our church and so we are lucky enough to have our church building right next to the school. We have about 30 minutes before we pick up Hannah, so we slip into church and spend some time alone together in the quiet talking about the stained glass windows, statues of Jesus and discovering all that we see from a distance at Sunday Mass. When it is time to leave, Lily blows Jesus a kiss and tells him that she loves him. It is so sweet and I know he is there blowing her a kiss right back and telling my sweet girl how much he loves her.

My little Lily you are the world's sweetest little girl as well as the world's biggest stinker and there is not a thing I would change about you. Our lives are so much fuller now that you are a part of our family and I am looking forward to continuing to watch you grow. I love you so much and am so grateful that God blessed us with you!

An Art-filled Weekend

2010-11-09T22:31:00.000-06:00

We spent this past weekend enjoying one of our favorite art festivals around - the Moss Rock Festival. The art festival is held each year in November right outside of Birmingham in The Preserve, a beautiful Hoover neighborhood. I love this neighborhood because all of the houses are built using classic American style architecture. I am a sucker for architecture and am a big fan of old homes with a great history (which is why we own the house we do.) The interesting thing about The Preserve is it is a new neighborhood built using styles of the past...mixing the best of the old with the best of the new. I still prefer homes with a history but if you want new this is definitely the way to go.

We spent Saturday at Moss Rock enjoying a really sunny, really cold day outside playing with hula hoops, creating some works of art ourselves, wandering around houses with walls made from recycled materials, making music and more! Sunday we were back for more spending some time walking around checking out the artist booths and admiring their creations. We had a great time and enjoyed what I consider to be the perfect fall weekend.

Such fun with my family! And speaking of fun...tomorrow Lily turns the big "2"! Today my thoughts keep turning to how on this day 2 years ago I was on laying on my left side in the bed on bed rest and daydreaming about meeting my little girl. I am looking forward to celebrating two wonderful years with my little Lils tomorrow!

Boo! It's Halloween!

2010-10-31T22:55:00.000-05:00

Halloween is finally here and let me just tell you it has been one long week. We had our costumes ready and our Halloween costume parties lined up...dance class, school, church, friend's party. Hannah was so excited and then all of the sudden my girls got sick. Lily had a mild sinus infection but poor Hannah had a respiratory infection. That was bad enough but then Hannah caught a stomach bug on top of the infection. M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. That is a pretty good word to describe sickness topped with knowing that all your friends are enjoying the Halloween fun while you are stuck in the bed...

and your costume hangs unworn in the closet...

Thankfully we decorated early this year so we were already in a festive mood...

I tried not to let the pity party hang around too long. This weekend between resting and snuggles we tried to slip in a little Halloween fun. We did manage to carve our pumpkin...

Afterwards we roasted the pumpkin seeds for a yummy treat...

And put our pumpkin on the front steps to welcome Halloween visitors...

Thankfully after resting all day today my little ones were ready for some trick or treating....

We didn't stay out trick or treating too long because Hannah is still getting her strength back but it was plenty of time to have fun and collect a bag full of goodies. We are looking forward to starting this week off healthy and beginning plans for welcoming everyone to our home for Thanksgiving. I love the holidays! Happy Halloween!!!

The great outdoors

2010-10-12T21:22:00.000-05:00

Fall has arrived but, except for a few coolish days last week, you would never know it. The humidity seems to be gone though and that has made it pleasant enough to make playing outside a little more tolerable. Playing outside is where we want to be and that is exactly what we have been doing. Mom, Bekah and Hugh came to visit last weekend and so we spent some quality time outdoors. Bekah, or Sister B as I like to call her...

taught my girls the ins and outs of a good old fashioned round-off while she was here...

I know she will thank me for posting this picture later. She stuck the landing and I would totally give her a 9.8 overall. Who knew you could still be a gymnast at the ripe ole age of 31?

Lily made me fix her hair to go outside...

She REALLY wanted to wear her hair in little piggie tails like Hannah so this is what we ended up with. They were a little lopsided and you have to wrap the rubber band around each one a million times but hey, she is happy and that is what is important right?

Hannah has been working diligently on this masterpiece...

She discovered that if you dip the chalk in water before you apply it then the color is much more vibrant. I am not sure how long it will take for the rain to wash away this artwork...it seems a little more permanent...but it kept her busy for quite some time :)

We have closed up our summer garden and are making way for fall and winter vegetables. This was our last harvest of the summer...

Hannah and Lily both loved the home grown okra. This was a new vegetable for Lily and since Hannah did not really remember eating it last summer - semi-new for her. I know I said this last year, but if you have not tried grilled okra with a little olive oil and sea salt you are missing out. Our garden was such a success except for our squash. Something decided to eat it before we could and our squash plant never recovered. I will miss all the pretty colors and yumminess of our summer garden but am looking forward to what fall and winter bring.

Oh and I wanted to share a new friend that we have outside of our front window...

It is an orb spider and is a type of garden spider that is supposedly nice to have around. I first met this spider when I went to bend over to pick something up off the ground and almost stuck my face in the center of its web...exactly where this spider was sitting. I almost had a heart attack. After a little research we found out that orb spiders are not considered dangerous and, since Hannah and Lily really like to watch it out the window, I decided it could stay. This spider is especially neat because it eats its web every night and weaves it again by morning. Ok I know enough with the spider talk! I hope I haven't put anyone to sleep or given anyone nightmares for that matter. Hope to be back soon! Good night friends!

Last but not least...Summer's End Part III

2010-09-24T14:14:00.000-05:00

We had several play dates over the course of August with these two cuties...

Ruthie and Elsie are the daughters of my cousin Jessie and my girls always love playing with them. We had them over to our house for a little reading, drawing, cupcake making and playing. We read a couple of books by one of our very favorite authors Mo Willems and used them as inspiration for our drawings. We have quite a few of Mo Willems' books in our home library including...

Mo is a big fan of something called Family Draw Night where you get your family together around a big piece of paper and and take turns choosing a theme around which everyone draws. Just look at some of the fun things here and here he and his family and friends create on these evenings. I love this idea and so I adapted it to our play date.

I pulled out our big ream of butcher paper and taped it to our dining room table, threw some crayons in mason jars and placed them at each child's seat and voila...an easy and fun activity for the kids.

I was absolutely amazed at Ruthie's drawing abilities. She sat down at the table and whipped out this dinosaur in about 5 seconds....

The girl is good! She gets it from her Mama who has a degree in Art and who entertained Lily with her drawing of Lily and her best friend...

Mo feels that drawing is becoming a lost art with many kids who would rather be sitting in front of the tv or playing a video game. I must admit that I am not one to just sit down and draw with my kids so this really was a fun activity. Ever since this play date I have seen an improvement in Hannah's drawing skills and there is no more "Mommy what should I draw?" She is more confident with using her imagination to create a drawing and picking a subject to draw...

After our little draw fest and lunch I brought out some cupcakes and sprinkles and the girls decorated and devoured their treats...

There is nothing like being able to put as many sprinkles on a cupcake as you want!

We also spent some time with Ruthie and Elsie at the Birmingham Museum of Art for Family Day. This is a day for families to spend together creating art, participating in a scavenger hunt through the museum galleries and looking at the Museum's permanent and traveling collections. The Family Day that we attended was focused on the exhibit Fashioning Kimono. The kimonos were beautiful and I wish I could show you pictures but, since much of it was on loan, visitors could not take photographs.

I did get a couple of pictures of Ruthie and Hannah in the Sculpture Garden. I like to think they were contemplating the art historical context of each piece :) ...

We had lots of fun with these girls and hopefully tonight after supper our family is going to once again pull out the butcher paper...

Summer's End Part II

2010-09-17T19:47:00.000-05:00

I was supposed to post this many, many days ago but again life took over. Thank you to my sister Bekah who has persistently called me each day for the past 15 days to remind me that yet another day has past and I have not kept my promise of the next "Summer's End" blog update. Thank you sister for keeping me on my toes (and quite aware of my blogging failures.)

We have had a busy couple of weeks trying to get back in to the swing of school and Mother's Day Out. Hannah has started her 3 day a week 4K program and Lily goes to Mother's Day Out twice a week. Fridays are now my day with just Lily and it has been quite an adjustment for my little one. Lily is used to having Hannah by her side all day when she is home and has been a bit thrown off by her solo time with Mommy. She asks quite often where "Hannie" is and does not like having to drop Hannah off at school. I am working hard to show her though that solo time with Mommy = lots and lots of fun!!! Here are my girls on their first day of school last week...

Ok so now as promised I want to finish up my posts on our August adventures...

A few weeks ago my friend Melissa and I packed up our kids and left Birmingham for a quick overnight trip to Huntsville. Our sweet friend Rachel and her family just moved to Huntsville from Columbus, MS at the end of July and she was nice enough to invite us up to see her new home and let all of our kids have some play time. Rachel, Melissa, and I are friends from high school and we, along with a few others, always make it a point to get ourselves and our children together a few times a year.

This is Rachel's beautiful almost 3 year old daughter, Campbell...

and this is her sweet son Davis...

They live in a very cute neighborhood built around several ponds. The ponds are stocked with fish so we were able to take the kids fishing after supper. This was Hannah's first time to ever fish and can I just say that after catching 3 fish she is now hooked :)

Her first priority when we arrived back in Birmingham was to figure out exactly how she was going to get her very own fishing pole.

The Franklin boys, Thomas and Hudson, were both great fishermen...

I am pretty sure that the worms were not big fans of Campbell's but she sure liked them...

The fish were actually tiny but I don't think the kids would have been any happier catching a giant snapper...

Rachel was such a sport putting on all the worms and taking off any fish that were caught...

All the kids were worn out after our evening of playing and fishing and so thankfully everyone, including Lily, slept soundly all night long.

The next morning we headed to Earlyworks Children's History Museum. It is a beautiful children's museum full of really fun stuff like a talking tree, an old general store, a keel-boat, and a great children's play area. I wish I had better pictures but the talking tree greeted us when we walked in and terrified Lily so she was on my hip the rest of our time at the museum. Oh and my poor Hannah was having a massive allergy attack so I was handing out tissues right and left. The camera took a back seat to my kids and so I don't feel like I did Earlyworks justice with my pictures...it really was so interesting and pretty.

This colorful tree was in the atrium and was a great place to sit and have a little snack...

The kids could climb on a wagon (that is the huge boat in the background)...

and explore the process of making cotton...

They had a giant building area with huge tinker toys and legos...

The kids learned about the history of music in Alabama with larger than life instruments...

and had a great time in the play area for the little ones...

This is a great little museum and definitely worth a visit if you have children and are ever in Huntsville. We left the museum, had a yummy lunch at a little restaurant in downtown Huntsville and then after a super quick visit to our favorite store Dirt Cheap...yes Dirt Cheap...we headed home. (If you ever come across a Dirt Cheap store make sure to stop in. Rachel introduced us all to the store when she lived in Columbus and they just opened one in Huntsville. They get the overstocks, etc. from stores like Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond. We have found some of the biggest bargains EVER at this little hole in the wall store.)

Our trip was over way too quickly but it was lots of fun for the kids and the adults. Thanks Rachel for a great time and we hope to see you again soon!!!

I will be back soon with our final post Summer's End Part III.

Summer's End

2010-09-02T20:35:00.000-05:00

We have been trying to make the most of the end of summer by enjoying as much time as possible with our friends. School starts next week for Hannah and Mother's Day Out for Lily and I must admit that I am a little sad. This August, with no Mother's Day Out, no school, and no schedule, has by far been my favorite month of summer. We have played, baked, gardened, traveled and just enjoyed being together all day morning til night. We have actually had so much going on the past couple of weeks that I haven't had time until now to go through all of our pictures and sit down and write a post. I can't possibly fit everything in one post so I am going to have the next few posts recap all that we have been up to lately. So without further adieu....

We celebrated National Aviation Week by taking advantage of free admission to the Southern Museum of Flight. For those of you here in Birmingham it is located close to the Birmingham Airport and is worth a visit. There were lots and lots of airplanes to see and thankfully most all were inside so we did not have to brave the August heat.

We prepared for our visit by making our own paper airplanes with Daddy...

Hannah and Lily had a good time flying these around the house and carried these little planes with them everywhere we went for about a week.

When we arrived at the museum we found planes all around us. They were inside and outside, suspended from the ceiling...

and on the ground...

Hannah and Lily were even able to sit in a cockpit and pretend to fly...

The museum also had a children's area where you could build your own airplane out of things like legos...

I was surprised at how large and family friendly this little museum is and we will definitely go back for another visit. Fyi...I also think this would be a great place for a birthday party (particularly for a boy) if you are looking for something a little different and fun.

That same week Hannah's classmate Mary invited all of the girls from her upcoming 4K class over for a little swim party. Hannah was so excited to see all her friends and of course spend some time in the pool.

The girls (along with a few younger siblings) had a great time swimming and playing together. We are looking forward to seeing all of these sweet faces on a regular basis when school starts back next week!

I will be back tomorrow with our Summer's End Part 2...

Public Service Announcement

2010-08-15T13:54:00.000-05:00

It is going to be bright and sunny out there today so don't forget your shades...

A visit from Rachel

2010-08-13T13:51:00.000-05:00

My sister Rachel came to visit last weekend...

Rachel lives in Nashville and is a student by day and an employee of one of my favorite stores in the whole wide world, Anthropologie, by night. She is super busy and so her trip was quick but filled with fun. Hannah was so excited about Rachel's visit that she woke up early, dressed herself and came in to the kitchen and asked "Is she here yet, is she here yet?!" This from my oldest child who usually appears in the morning still half asleep, hair going every which way, and drags herself in to my bed. She was excited to say the least.

Hannah and Lily had a great time with Rachel. They laughed...

They cried...

They played...

They read...

They celebrated (Rachel had a birthday last week)...

By the end they were pooped...

It was a fun but, as always, way too short of a visit and we hope Rachel will come see us again very soon.

Lots to report

2010-08-06T22:37:00.000-05:00

We have had a busy past couple of weeks in our house and I stepped away from the blogging world so that I could keep up. I am back, life is seemingly under control and I have LOTS to report.

First up I was able to leave for a girls weekend at the beach with some of my precious college friends while Matt stayed home with Hannah and Lily. My sweet friend Susannah graciously allowed us to stay at her parents house in Rosemary Beach. It is always such a treat to stay in this beautiful house...

It really is like a dream when you wake up to this view out your bedroom window in the morning...

The house is beautiful inside and out. The decor is beachy, open and airy and I am told that Susannah's mom gets all the credit. I am thinking that she might need a career as an interior decorator and that she might need me as her first client.

I seriously want to spend the rest of my life in this house. It is beautiful and restful and perfect in almost every way.

I went to the beach with these girls...

We had such a great time visiting, reminiscing, staying up late, eating yummy food and enjoying good wine. It was a great and very quick trip but we enjoyed every second of it. I am so thankful for good friends!

Back home and in the real world we have been trying to entertain ourselves inside our house. It is miserably hot outside and we rarely spend time in the heat except for early morning and late evening when the temperatures are somewhat tolerable.

We have been enjoying time with friends including a play date with our friends the Whites. Lee is a friend of mine from high school and she has two girls Harper and Evie. They came over and the girls made spoon dolls and presented them to us in our mini-theatre...

I bought this little puppet theatre at Bargain Carousel this past year...

and we prettied it up with contact paper and some new fabric...

We love having little puppet performances around here and it was perfect for the little spoon dolls. We have enjoyed pulling the dolls out the past few days and Hannah and I make up silly stories about the adventures of our dolls who have been named "Hannah" and "Lily" :)

The White and Brown girls :) had fun in Hannah's toy box too...

It was a great day and we hope to do it again soon!

Hannah has some school time each day and has been working hard on her writing...

School time is always followed by play time around here and so we have taken up afternoon bowling...

Hannah and Lily stay entertained and I get a workout chasing around pins and setting them up every 10 seconds :)

And finally, when we do venture outside in the evening it is usually to check on the watermelon that is growing in the garden!...

Our watermelon plant has been growing immensely all summer but has never produced any fruit. I was beginning to give up hope until we finally saw one tiny sprout. The watermelon seems to double in size each day and Hannah is VERY excited about the day when she gets to eat this treat.

Ok so that is all for now...so sorry for the very long post. I am off to get ready for some special guests who are stopping by this weekend!

Someday

2010-07-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

I am keeping my fingers crossed that someday when Hannah and Lily are a little older we will have a real in-ground pool. Until then the sprinkler will have to do...

Our Garden

2010-07-17T13:04:00.000-05:00

We spend a good deal of time these days watering and watching our little garden...

We have had what seems to be great success with our raised garden and things are growing at an amazing rate each day. This is my first ever vegetable garden and I have to say that it is such fun to share this with my girls but also I have found that this garden is a little getaway for Mama. Hannah and I will water the garden in the evenings when there is time before bed and other times I do it alone after the girls are asleep. On those nights I have found such a peace in this quiet time alone tending to these plants and watching them grow. I have always heard people talk about the "zen" of gardening and I think I have some understanding of what they mean now.

These sugar snap pea and carrot sprouts have grown tremendously since these pictures were taken a few weeks ago...

I love this picture of a green pepper in our garden because if you look closely in the background there is another tiny pepper just starting to grow...

We have several tomatoes on our vine that are ripening with each day...

We planted these pretties to add a pop of color to our otherwise green garden...

And our most exciting garden news is that these tiny cucumbers...

turn in to giant ole cukes, several of which have already been harvested by these little hands...

We have MANY cucumbers on the vine and I am looking forward to making our first ever batch of homemade pickles in the coming weeks. Have a great weekend!

Most Days

2010-07-15T09:42:00.003-05:00

Most days my children are running around the house in nothing but a diaper or Hello Kitty underwear...

I should probably go ahead and apologize to anyone who might drop in unexpectedly. I don't know what it is but I really think that they think clothing is optional.

Of course other times they insist on wearing clothes...both their's and their sister's..simultaneously...

But clothed or not we always have a fun activity planned for the day.

Most days we spend a little time coloring...

(yes that is my wall)

or using wooden spoons to whip up a yummy treat...

(yep you might have guessed it... that is Hannah in control of the spoon...no one was injured in the process :))

All I have to say is...It is a good thing these kids are cute...

Fourth of July Festivities

2010-07-07T12:57:00.000-05:00

I hope that you had a great fourth of July weekend. We certainly did!

Our long weekend included fireworks...

enjoying some relatively comfortable evening temperatures by grilling and eating alfresco...

and a little hiking trip to enjoy the great outdoors...

I had forgotten how much I love walking around completely surrounded by nature. Hannah is becoming so independent and adventurous making this mama a little nervous. I know it is part of life but it is taking some getting used to for me. Hannah was totally at ease walking on rocks, thin trails and somewhat steep hills all the while refusing my offers to hold her hand. When she fell she hopped right back up, brushed herself off and continued on like nothing happened. Thankfully Lily can still be confined to her carrier though if she had her way she would be right next to her sister trying it all out on her own too.

We hope to find time for another escape to the woods soon and Hannah is really hoping our next trip includes a tent. :)

A visit from Granny & Blueberry Crumb Bars

2010-07-06T17:13:00.000-05:00

We had a special visitor stop in our little Brown house recently...my Granny. My mom's parents, better known as Granny and Grampa, live in Atlanta, Ga and even though that is not so very far away we rarely are able to make the trip these days with two little ones. Mom went to Atlanta for a visit and then brought Granny back with her to could spend the week in my hometown of Florence, AL. They stopped by on their way to Florence.

Here I am with Mom and Granny...

I am pretty sure that the baby blues on Granny are at least partly responsible for these pretty blue eyes...

Hannah and Lily had a great time showing off for Granny and I enjoyed visiting with her and talking babies, recipes, gardening and such.

While Granny was here we had a quick lunch and I made these for dessert...

They are blueberry crumb bars from Smitten Kitchen. Granny gave them two thumbs up. Yummy!

We had a fun time and hope to return the visit soon.

A caterpillar, a yard sale and more!

2010-06-28T22:16:00.000-05:00

We added to our collection of caterpillars at our house this weekend. We found this semi-scary, mostly just interesting looking caterpillar on one of our strawberry plants...

He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying devouring the leaves on our plant so I broke off the leaf he was munching on before he could do anymore damage and put him and the leaf in a bug finder. Now he and Wormie are sitting next to each other in their different stages of life. I am excited for Hannah to compare and contrast their cocoons and their features as they emerge from this process.

I think this is a great learning process for my girls and I was super excited this weekend to visit a neighbor's yard sale and find an activity that related to our adventures raising butterflies/moths. I hit the jackpot because our neighbor happens to be a teacher and she was getting rid of some teacher "stuff". I found these brand new life cycle figures...

and a cute book that went along with it...

When I find things like this I think it is meant to be and it was a deal too. Hannah has enjoyed matching the different figures to the pictures in the book. Hopefully it will reinforce what we are seeing in our bug finders. We also found some fun walkie talkies at the yard sale...

Matt and I are in the process of teaching Hannah and Lily the proper lingo for walkie talkie ownership. You know...breaker breaker, over and out, etc :). I love a good yard sale! It was a great weekend that also included a trip to the rodeo, but that is a post all its own.

Today was a day filled with all that our Mondays typically include...playing, learning, cleaning and all around recovering from the weekend. Does anyone else feel that your house stays more orderly during the week than it does on the weekend? I don't know exactly what happens every Saturday and Sunday but I am always spending part of Monday cleaning it up.

We did start our day with "school time" today and that included a little bible craft project that I thought was cute. We started by talking about Psalm 23 "The Lord is my shepherd" and what exactly that meant. I then traced Hannah and Lily's hands...

cut out what we had traced...

let them glue some cotton balls, an eye and some ribbon on the cut out and voila...

It was a quick and easy project that both Hannah and Lily could do. I am trying to start our days out this summer with some sort of faith formation activity whether it be a little craft like this or just a simple story from a religious children's book or the Bible. I can't think of a better way to start out the day!

We also spent some time outside melting in the heat and collecting rocks for our next rock project. I am finding it really frustrating that the only good time to go outside lately is early morning or late evening with the mosquitos. We didn't stay out long but at least it was a little fresh air...

I am always thankful for a good start to the week. Hope yours was good as well. Be back soon.

Breaker breaker over and out.

Maple Jones and Wormie

2010-06-25T14:18:00.000-05:00

Whenever we go out for walks Hannah and Lily are forever walking at a snail's pace stopping to pick up what sometimes seems like every rock or twig that lines their path. This week I decided that we should actually use some of the things that they liked to collect and turn them into something fun. We took a little walk outside before the heat became too unbearable to intentionally collect all the sticks, rocks and leaves their little hands could pick up...

We brought all their findings home and dumped them out on the table...

I grabbed the glue gun and we got to work. Here is one of our creations...

Her name is Maple Jones according to Hannah and she now sits on the windowsill in our kitchen. She has an apron made from leaves from our bushes, a maple leaf for a hat, rocks for a body, sticks for arms, leaves for feet and a sweetgum ball for head. We think she's pretty cute! My favorite part of this project was watching Hannah use her imagination and come up with using these great leaves for Maple's feet and showing me how they also make great bunny ears. This is a project that I will keep on hand for those days when we are going a little stir crazy in the house and need a little distraction.

We also have a new pet in our house. She looked like this when she arrived...

Her name according to Hannah is Wormie Worm and she is actually a caterpillar. She arrived at our house attached to a piece of corn in our "vegbox". We decided to put her in our little bug viewer with her corn and watch her for a few days. Hannah and Lily thoroughly enjoyed watching her feast on the corn and crawl around the little bug box. A few days later though we checked on her and she looked like this...

So we are now raising a butterfly. We have changed her home to include some leaves and a stick, read up on what to do when she emerges and plan on releasing her back outside once she is ready. It is a really neat process to watch and we are anxiously awaiting Wormie's debut as a beautiful butterfly.

Have a great weekend!

A week of firsts

2010-06-18T22:45:00.000-05:00

Whew! We had what seemed like an incredibly busy week of firsts at our house and they all revolved around my favorite little 4 year old daughter.

Hannah had her very first dance class...

her first vacation bible school (complete with a great closing performance)...

and her first swimming lessons...

It was a whirlwind of running from one place to the next trying to get Hannah where she needed to be, not to mention getting Lily to her school and fitting in her naps. Lily stayed in good spirits all week despite being awakened from her nap most afternoons for Hannah's swim lessons. She is so ready for her turn to be involved in all of this fun...

I think this might be a glimpse into my future hectic life down the road. Thank goodness though, for now, life can return to our normal, slightly more relaxed, schedule next week :)

Have a great weekend!

Meeting in the Middle

2010-06-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

My sister, Bekah, and her husband of 1 month and 11 days, Hugh, live in newly married wedded bliss in Nashville, TN.

Nashville is 3 hours away from Birmingham and Birmingham just happens to be where Bekah's favorite older sister lives. Hugh is originally from Magee, MS which is about 4 hours away from Birmingham and is where Hugh's sweet parents, Kim and Alfred, still reside.

Bekah and Hugh have a dog named Cooper that they received as an early wedding gift...

He is a labradoodle and he is very glad his parents are finally married. Cooper also loves his summer haircut that he received before the picture above was taken. He is usually nice and fluffy but now he is cool and comfy.

So Bekah and Hugh went on a belated honeymoon last week to Jamaica and Hugh's kind parents agreed to dogsit Cooper for the week. Hugh met his parents in Birmingham to drop off Cooper before they left for the honeymoon and last Sunday Birmingham was chosen again as sort of a mid point for Cooper's grandparents to return him to his mama and daddy.

I was so excited when Bekah sent me the email from her swanky beach resort to let me know they would be coming for a little visit when they returned home. Mom was already planning on being here to stay with us while Matt went out of town for work so all I needed was my baby sister, Rachel, to make this visit perfect.

I have not had both my sisters under my roof in a really long time and so I gave Rachel, who also lives in Nashville a call. Rachel is in school and had a big test this week but she caved and agreed to hitch a ride with Bekah and Hugh and study in the car.

Sometimes you just miss your sisters and need a good visit to make things all better. Everyone met here for lunch and for a little belated birthday celebration for Mom. My heart was very happy to have these three playing with my girls and sitting on our porch swing...

Our cousin Lauren and her husband, Chase, joined in on the fun too.

With my girls entertained by so many people I could actually walk around and take some pictures. It was quite a treat...

The day was over way too soon but I am so glad for even these quick visits from family. I am hoping for another visit from my sisters in the near future and this time overnight bags better be included :)

How does your garden grow?

2010-06-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

I have dreamed of having my very own garden for several years now and my sweet, precious, dear, wonderful hubby decided that this was the year to help me make that happen. We only have one spot in our yard that is really an appropriate place for a garden and that involved taking out an entire row of not so attractive privet hedges. Matt did this by hand and, as things always tend to do for us, it turned in to quite a job....

A whole row of these suckers had to come out and let me tell ya it wasn't fun for poor Matt. But it is done and our yard really does look better with the hedges gone. Our neighbor has beautiful azaleas that were hidden behind our hedges so now those line our garden area.

We are planning our garden based on the book "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.

It seemed like the best solution for the little area of space we have in our small yard. Basically we built a raised garden where you grow your fruits, veggies, flowers, etc. in square foot sections. There is a whole formula to all of this but Mel, the author, has it all figured out and has laid everything out in a seemingly simple manner. I will let you all know if it is as revolutionary as he claims when it comes time to harvest what we are planting.

Once the hedges were cleared, Matt and Hannah marked off the garden area...

The building process was a family affair...

and I have never seen Hannah work so hard on a project. Sweat was literally pouring from her sweet head. I should probably stop here and tell you that I did not realize how much work she was actually going to do when I let her go outside in the dress she was wearing. This was actually the same day as Lily's 1/2 birthday celebration so they were both a little overdressed for working in the yard. Thankfully Hannah's dress was machine washable :)

Now that that little matter is cleared up...Both girls really did enjoy helping out and Hannah is now a master at reading a level, holding a hammer, and many other great things. She loves, loves, loves working with her daddy and I am always such a proud mama when I see my girls involved in what we are doing around the house.

With the construction phase of the garden complete we have spent the past couple of days putting in the soil and planting our summer veggies. I will save that for a later post though. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Love,
The Browns

Strawberries & Lemons

2010-05-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

In honor of Memorial Day, and all the good food and drinks that come along with it, I thought I would share some photos from our latest adventure in the kitchen making strawberry lemonade.

From Hannah's licking the lemon to Lily's trying to eat the rind both girls agreed that lemons are, in Hannah's words, "yucky" but the lemonade was mmmmmmm.....good!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Happy 1/2 Birthday

2010-05-29T08:38:00.000-05:00

This month we celebrated Lily's half birthday. We had to do it a little late because my little ones were under the weather on the actual day but we celebrated nevertheless.

18 months is such a big time in a baby's life and so much has changed over the past 6 months. Lily's personality is developing more and more with each passing day and I love watching her grow. This sweet child of mine is so sensitive and loving and independent and boy does she ever have a temper. She wants to simultaneously be on my hip every second of the day while at the same time running around doing everything on her own.

Lily's bunny is her best friend right behind her sister Hannah or "Nannie" as she calls her. Every morning when I go to get Lily out of her crib she proudly holds Bunny up and points to her and says excitedly "Bunny!" as if she is introducing us for the first time.

It is "Nannie" though that is Lily's favorite these days. Lily chases her around and her eyes are constantly watching and learning from her sister. She wants to do absolutely EVERYTHING Hannah does down to drinking from the exact same cup and eating off of the exact same plate.

Lily's favorite food is Italian meatballs, she loves black eyed peas and broccoli, and no matter how many times I try she won't touch milk with a ten foot pole. Lily is in love with her teacher Ms. Waffa at her Mother's Day Out program and constantly asks for "Vaffa" at home. Her favorite place to play is outside whether it is at the sand and water table or digging in the rocks, dirt or mulch (which really stresses her ocd clean lovin' mother out).

This blond headed, blue eyed little girl is, as her older sister would say, "teeny weeny" (weighing in at a whopping 19lbs 5 oz). She thinks that the Sandra Boynton book "Blue Hat, Green Hat" is absolutely hilarious and loves to read anything that involves animals. Lily loves animals but right now but only from afar. The second one comes too close she starts looking up at me waving those little hands for me to save her. She is talking up a storm, even forming simple sentences, and it seems that every day produces several new words. (Today she asked me "'ere's MY Nannie?" aka "Where's my Hannah" and my heart melted just a little.) My favorite words to hear her say right now are puppy and bunny. She has this cute little intonation when she says both of those words and it is just too precious. Lily has a gang of friends that she loves to sleep with in her bed and she calls them each by name...."Ne", "E-E", "Baby", "Puppy" and, of course, "Bunny".

In case you can't tell I love this little baby girl oh so much and I am so blessed to be her mama! Happy half birthday my sweet Lils!

Summer has arrived!

2010-05-27T13:40:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since my last post but as always there is never a dull moment around here. School has ended, hot weather is here and, though the calendar technically doesn't say so, summer has officially started in this house. We are in the midst of pulling hedges, planting a vegetable garden, running through sprinklers, eating popsicles, visiting family, initiating our bi-weekly dinners with friends, house renovations, preparing for the beginning of dance class, vacation bible school and swim lessons, the list goes on and on.... I love the low key, low pressure months of summer and we have a lot of fun planned for the next 3 months. Be back soon with more on life around our house.

Mama's Day

2010-05-09T21:40:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there! I have had a nice day here at our little Brown house spent with my husband and two precious little ones. My day actually could not have started any better. That was my exact thought as Hannah crawled into my bed this morning, snuggled close, and put one hand on each of my cheeks. She just laid there, right next to me, with her hands on my cheeks not saying anything but just kind of looking off in the distance like she was in deep thought. It was a sweet moment and a nice way to start the day.

Hannah and Lily both made me little handprint Mother's Day gifts, which I will treasure. They also gave me with this doormat that I have been wanting to help keep the dirt where it belongs....

The final gift, that my family so sweetly gave me, I have to pick out myself. It is a large flower pot that will sit on my front porch next to my new doormat. I knew that this would be my Mother's Day present prior to today and have been looking for some time now for just the right container. I can't decide and so this gift will have to wait until I make up my mind...which, of course, could take some time knowing me and my decision making skills.

After church we spent the rest of the day spreading quite a bit of this in our back yard...

and turning these ugly 'naners...

into yummy banana bread...

Banana bread is Hannah's favorite thing to bake right now and I sometimes think that she could eat the whole loaf if I left her alone with it. It crossed my mind today as Hannah and I were baking that I grew up loving banana bread that was made for me as a child by my mother and grandmother. How appropriate that on Mother's Day Hannah and I were spending time in the kitchen continuing a tradition passed down from mother to mother in our family.

We closed our day after supper with a little more yard beautification. We snazzied up the front planter box with these...

We accomplished quite a bit but just being together was the best part of it all. I am so thankful for a family who makes me feel appreciated on this special day and also for every day reaffirming how blessed I am to be called "Mama". I hope that each of you mothers out there feel special, appreciated and blessed on this day too.

...and we're gonna get married

2010-05-07T14:18:00.000-05:00

We had quite the weekend and I think I have just now recovered. My sister Bekah's wedding was this past Saturday and so we traveled to my hometown for a long weekend. Sadly, as we were packing on Thursday, we found out that my uncle had just passed away and our trip would be extended. So we traveled home to Florence for a wedding on Saturday and a funeral on Monday...quite an emotional roller coaster.

The wedding was beautiful and my sister was a gracious and beautiful bride. We started the wedding festivities Friday evening with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Hannah did a great job at the rehearsal practicing her flower girl duties and I was quite confident that the wedding ceremony would go off without a hitch.

After the rehearsal, friends and family met for dinner at a wonderful little restaurant in Florence. Here is the happy couple, just hours away from their big day...

and here is a rare picture of us sisters all together...

Now I think I will take a moment to introduce a few new faces to the blog...

This is Holly, Hugh's sister...

She is super sweet and has a beautiful smile. Holly lives in Birmingham and has offered us her babysitting services (even after seeing my children in all their glory over the weekend). I love her dearly :)

Here is my cousin Jessie and her husband Matt...

They live in Birmingham with their two girls Ruthie and Elsie, some of Hannah and Lily's favorite playmates. Jessie is the daughter of my uncle who passed away last Thursday so please keep her in your prayers.

I would also like you to meet Jack and Mary Morgan, aka the ring bearer and other flower girl. They are relatives of Hugh and Mary Morgan is Hannah's new best friend. Hannah loved her and followed her around all weekend.

Lastly, I am going to introduce you to the wedding weekend wild child posse. You might have seen some of these faces before. Here they are in action...notice the blurs at the bottom of the photo...

The posse was headed up by these two....

They were up way past their bedtime and having way too much fun to slow down...

Here is another member of the crew...Cousin Ella...

There were many other members of the group and I really should have gotten a group shot. I could go on and on with my introductions but I think I will stop here. It was quite a memorable evening full of friends, family and fun. I think we all collapsed in our beds that night from exhaustion, but it was worth it.

The next morning we were up with the birds with last minute wedding preparations. I realized after the fact that I didn't take many photographs of the day, but there was just too much to do. Trying to juggle mommy duty, sister duty and bridesmaid duty was quite a task. Thankfully there were professionals around snapping pictures all day.

I did manage to get a few pictures of the bride before the ceremony including this one...

So beautiful and remarkably relaxed at this point!

You might wonder how Hannah did with her flower girl duties. Well...she made it to the end of the aisle sprinkling her flower petals just perfectly. She was almost to the spot where she was supposed to stand. Then she paused, literally inches away from me and the other bridesmaids. Her little index finger popped up - like when you make the number 1 - or in this case like you are saying "wait a minute." She then turned around and headed back up the aisle perusing the flower petals. Prior to the wedding I had handed her a single flower petal to hold and it ended up in her basket with all the other petals she sprinkled. So Hannah decided to go back up the aisle and look through all of the petals in search of the single petal I had given her (which looked exactly like all the others). Thankfully Matt intercepted her at the back of the church and brought her around to me just as the Trumpet Voluntary began and Bekah made her grand entrance. Oh my sweet Hannah! Never a dull moment!

It was a special weekend that we will never forget. Congrats Bekah and Hugh! We love you!!

Going to the Chapel...

2010-04-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in recent posts, one of my favorite sisters is getting married on Saturday. Hannah is a flower girl in the wedding and so there has been much talk around here about Bekah's big day. Hannah practiced being the bride...

but then I told her that she has many many many looooooooooong years of living under her mother's roof before that ever happens. So she began practicing for her real job on Saturday...

This is her first wedding to attend and boy is she looking forward to it!

PS. Bekah - Hannah is hoping you will have jell-o pudding pops at the reception...

Weekend Recap

2010-04-28T21:30:00.000-05:00

We had quite an eventful weekend here at the Brown house. Matt spent most of the weekend getting in some good quality daddy time with Hannah and Lily while I worked at the Junior League's Bargain Carousel. He did a wonderful job and I came home both Saturday and Sunday evenings to a clean house, children fed and dinner waiting on me. Makes me think I should get out more often! :)

Bargain Carousel was a huge success...we had over 3500 people through the doors in the first four hours alone! I never would have imagined after organizing all of this for months...

that we would be left with only four tiny little boxes of things that did not sell. These photos are only from my home decor section...there was also linens, electronics, art, books, furniture - you name it it was there. It was a big job but well worth the effort because it will fund many wonderful JLB community projects around town.

We did find time to squeeze in two quick trips to the ONB Magic City Art Connection this weekend also. On our final visit on Sunday we picked up a little something for Lily's room. It is a mixed media work on paper that incorporates old sewing patterns and vintage buttons into the piece. I won't show the entire work yet because it is not framed but here are some peeks...

It is by the artist Lisa Norris, aka made by one girl, and I can't wait to share it with you once it is framed and in its new home on Lily's wall.

After such an eventful weekend you would think it would be time to slow down but oh no no. We are gearing up for an even more exciting weekend beginning this Friday...my sister Bekah's wedding! We have been anxiously awaiting this weekend and can't believe it is finally here. I still have much to do to prepare but am looking forward to a weekend filled with family and fun!

I think that this photo pretty much sums up life around here...very busy but...

This Weekend

2010-04-22T22:31:00.000-05:00

Do you have plans this weekend? I have two great suggestions for those of you looking for something to do here in Birmingham.

The first is the most wonderful art festival around...the ONB Magic City Art Connection. I have worked with this festival in many capacities over the years and hold it near and dear to my heart.

I blogged about the Magic City Art Connection one year ago here in my very first ever blog post at Our Little Brown House. This art festival is full of amazing artists, great food and the most wonderful children's art area - the Imagination Festival. So if you are looking for a great outdoor activity this weekend look no further. You can find out more info on their website here.

Next up is an activity for my many friends in search of a great bargain. This coming weekend marks the 30th year of the Junior League of Birmingham's Bargain Carousel. It is basically a HUGE yard sale and includes items donated by over 1000 members of the Junior League. I attended the preview party a couple of weekends ago and was able to do some early bird shopping. I found some great stuff including this chandelier...

It now has a new coat of white paint and will soon be hanging in Lily's room...

I also found these three little pots...

They are brand spankin' new and are from a little boutique shop in downtown Homewood. I got them for the bargain price of $1. They were originally $9 each. I planted some herbs inside and they are now ready for a spot in my kitchen...

There are several more of these little pots for sale and many more bargains to be found. The proceeds from this sale support the 37 community projects that the Junior League sponsors around Birmingham.

I will be at both of these events this weekend and I hope to see some of you there too!

four

2010-04-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

My sweet girl turned four this past Wednesday and we have been celebrating all week long. Those are the best kind of birthdays if you ask me. The kind where the birthday revelry keeps going and going.

Hannah woke up Wednesday morning to these lining the floor...

She followed the trail of candles from her bed all the way to her chair at the kitchen counter...

Once she climbed in to her chair she was greeted with her first Happy Birthday song of the day and these for breakfast...

She is so excited to be four and I am pretty sure she told everyone she saw that it was her birthday. I loved that all day whenever anyone told her happy birthday her reply was "Happy Birthday to you too!" I tried explaining that a thank you would do but she was just too excited and continued with her response. I, of course, didn't continue correcting her because it was just too cute to listen to her reply.

After supper she had what might be every four year old's dream cake for dessert...

A mint chocolate chip ice cream cake topped with lots of sprinkles, whipped cream and oreos and under all the ice cream was a layer of chocolate syrup and chocolate graham cracker crust. Good good and more good! Nana was here for this birthday celebration and Hannah was thrilled to share her cake with Nana.

On Thursday Hannah celebrated turning four with her classmates at school. She came home with this little bear as a prize and I am pretty sure that you could not have made her more happy if you had given her the moon.

The third and final celebration was yesterday with Bebe and Grandad. We topped off a good lunch with these yummy cupcakes from a bakery down the street. They were hands down the best cupcakes I have ever eaten and each was handpicked by the birthday girl herself.

It has been quite a fun and special week for all of us. I love this little girl so much and there is nothing better to me than celebrating such a wonderful, beautiful life. Four years ago I could never have imagined how much more fulfilled, more challenging, more fun, more loving life could be. I am so thankful for Hannah and all the love and laughter that she has brought to our family.

Granny's Lemon Squares

2010-04-12T23:06:00.000-05:00

I am spending a lot of time this week in the kitchen as I have dishes and baked goodies promised to Hannah's school almost everyday this week. Thankfully mom is on her spring break and is here the first part of the week to help with her favorite granddaughters. I spent today baking cookies and lemon squares for Hannah's Ultimate Author Day at school on Wednesday. The cookies are good but it is my grandmother's lemon squares that take the prize. They are amazingly easy to make and are the best thing that I have put in my mouth in recent months. **Bekah and Rachel - I am posting this for you so that you can add this to your cookbooks if you don't have it in there already.**

All you need are these ingredients for the crust.

Mix 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, and 2 sticks melted butter together and spread this out evenly in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish.

Place it in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes...

While the crust is baking pull out these ingredients for the filling...

Take your pretty lemons...

and grate 1 tablespoon of the rind...

then cut them in half...

and squeeze out 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice.

Dump both in a bowl along with 4 eggs, 2 cups sugar and 4 tablespoons flour. Beat this all together until combined...

Your crust should be ready to go by now so pull it out of the oven and pour this mixture on top. Bake for 25 more minutes at 350. Once it has cooled, slice into squares and top with some confectioner's sugar...

Very sweet and very tangy and oh so very yummy!...

Thanks Granny for sharing!! Please say a little prayer that I survive this crazy week. Most importantly this week my sweet Hannah turns 4. I am really having mixed emotions about what a big girl she is becoming and just how quickly time passes! I will be back with more on this special birthday soon!

Celebrating Easter

2010-04-07T22:22:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter and I hope you all did too. There is nothing like singing that first Alleluia at Mass on Easter Sunday if you ask me!

I love that our dogwood tree fully bloomed the week of Easter. Dogwoods have always been one of my favorite trees partly because of what they symbolize. In case you aren't familiar, legend has it that the cross on which Jesus was crucified was made from a dogwood tree. After Jesus' crucifixion God decreed that the dogwood tree would never again grow large enough to be used to make a cross. Forevermore the dogwood became a small tree with symbolic flowers that bloom around Easter.

The flower of the dogwood has four petals which resemble the shape of a cross with a notch at each tip reminding us of the marks of the nails, brown with rust and stained with red. The center of the flower reminds us of the crown of thorns that Jesus wore upon his head. Certainly a special tree full of meaning and beauty to mark Easter each year and we are blessed to have one in our very own yard.

We had a great Easter morning with Hannah and Lily waking up to find some treats left just for them...

Hannah's jellybean jar was a big success throughout Lent and she was excited to see the white jellybeans, representing God's grace, appear on Easter morning.

That afternoon we had family over for Easter lunch, an egg hunt and picture time.

Happy Easter week to each of you!

Good Friday and More

2010-04-02T22:12:00.000-05:00

Hannah has been talking about the arrival of Good Friday for the past week anxiously awaiting this very sad day. She woke up late this morning, walked into the kitchen where her sister was eating breakfast and announced "Lily does not look sad!" After breakfast we did a little reflecting on Good Friday and the events that led up to Jesus' crucifixion. We pulled out our paper and crayons to put images with our words...

We began by tracing our feet and hands and talking about the nails that pierced Jesus' hands and feet..

We talked about the crown of thorns that sat on Jesus' head...

and the cross where Jesus was crucified and died...

I have been completely amazed this Lenten season at how much a 3 year old can understand about the death and resurrection of our Lord. I have learned that it is never to early to start developing a child's faith and knowledge of God.

After our Good Friday drawing session we went outside to enjoy a beautiful day. Bekah gave Hannah and Lily cute new dresses covered with white and yellow flowers....

We decided to go on a flower hunting excursion to celebrate their new attire. We took the camera and began a search for all the white and yellow flowers that we could find on our street. We did not come up empty handed...

Thanks so much for the dresses and the inspiration for our flower hunt Sister!! We were very successful and had lots of fun.

Before I leave you I have to tell you about my April Fool's joke I pulled on my dear husband. It involved these...

I should preface this by saying that yes, I am 33, even though you might think I am 9 after I tell you this. Okay back to my story. So last night after I brushed my teeth I took our tube of toothpaste...

and inserted a raisin...

Now I knew Matt had not brushed his teeth yet, so after I put the raisin in I hopped into bed, pulled the covers up, giggled and waited. Matt went into the bathroom and there I was under the covers trying not to laugh out loud waiting for his scream. I am not sure what I thought he would think the raisin was when it came out of the tube onto his toothbrush, but I had a few guesses. Anyway, next thing I knew Matt came quietly out of the bathroom and got in to bed. No mention of anything unusual. So I quickly reacted with a "Did you brush your teeth?" Matt: "Yes! Why?" Me: "Just wondering..." Matt: "Why? What's wrong? Does my breath stink?" Me: "No no it's nothing. Good night." I couldn't believe that my plan hadn't worked, but I didn't say anything in hopes that it would be an April 2nd joke. Well this morning Matt came out of the bathroom and said "Guess what was in the toothpaste tube!" Me, laughing: "What?" Matt: "A raisin!" Me, now dying laughing: "A raisin?!" Matt: "Did you put that in there? I almost gagged! I thought the toothpaste had molded and I knew the toothpaste tasted really weird last night!" Me: Nothing because I couldn't stop laughing. I am still laughing right now though I have been promised payback. It was totally worth it and you should try it on your husband the next time he brushes his teeth. I have laughed all day long thinking about it. Ok, again I promise I am 33 not 9.

Springtime - Part One

2010-03-31T14:55:00.000-05:00

Spring is here and we are enjoying the beautiful warm weather that comes with it. We have been outside as much as possible playing....

doing a little gardening (me)/digging in the dirt (Hannah and Lily)...

and my personal favorite, because my kitchen stays a little cleaner...grilling...

Hope you are outside enjoying your day too!

Our New Favorite Spot

2010-03-29T21:03:00.000-05:00

Hannah and Lily have a new favorite perch these days. It is a lovely little table that is just the right size for a one and three year old. My cousin Lauren and her husband Chase picked it up for us from Ikea on a recent trip to Atlanta. It has become a favorite spot to play music...

enjoy breakfast...

and create...

I have to be careful though because Lily can get a little bored while creating...

And once she is bored she now has easy access to the floor with her "just my size" chair. Now she has the freedom to hop down and make a mess on the floor...

and then, well...hop back up and make some more mess on the floor...

Ahhhhhh....freedom!

Also, a note to any potential babysitters. Now that we have this table DO NOT turn your back for even just one second or you, like me, might enter the room and find this...

One Year Anniversary

2010-03-15T23:53:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrated the one year anniversary of Lily's baptism - the wonderful day when little Lils was officially welcomed into the church. After supper tonight we lit Lily's baptismal candle and said a prayer together as a family.

Lily sat quietly in her chair and tried to blow out the candle the entire time.

After the prayer we each took a turn blessing Lily on her forehead...

Once our prayer ended we enjoyed a special dessert picked out by Hannah for her sister...

Lily took a couple of little licks and much like her birthday cupcake sat it to the side and went about her business...

I am sure that soon enough she will be devouring these treats! Happy Monday to you all!

A Peek Inside

2010-03-10T10:38:00.003-06:00

I am praying that today is our last day of being home bound because of sickness for a while. We have had quite a month thanks to sinus infections, viruses and stomach bugs. While I certainly do not relish in the fact that any one of us is ever sick, I am trying to appreciate the time that it allows us to slow down, snuggle close and do nothing but take time for each other. On one of our good days - meaning we were actually dressed and feeling ok - I took some photos of Hannah and Lily playing inside...

Hopefully life will return to "normal" tomorrow!

Blue Sky Dreamin'

2010-03-08T09:17:00.000-06:00

I am in the midst of operating an infirmary around here thanks to a stomach bug that just won't seem to go away. Since we are stuck inside I thought I would post some photos of the girls playing outside last week. I hope to enjoy the blue sky and fresh air again very soon...