the "Christmas Calendar"

is it really almost Christmas? i know we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving yet, but i am suddenly really in the Christmas spirit! it may be because Noah is really into this year...pointing out all of the christmas lights that are already showing up in our neighborhood and telling me things that he wants santa to bring him. it's the first year he is really anticipating it and i'm excited with him. we've been listening to my favorite Christmas cd, 'A Rat Pack Christmas'...here's a favorite verse that i just sang along with

{bonus points to those of you that can sing along too!}

"Frosted window panes, candles gleaming inside, painted candy canes on the tree..

Santa's on his way; he's filled his sleigh with things,

things for you and for me.

It's that time of year, when the world falls in love.

Every song you hear seems to say,

'Merry Christmas, may your New Year dreams come true.'

And this song of mine,

in three quarter time,

Wishes you and yours, the same thing too."

tonight i worked on a really special Christmas tradition. i made The Christmas Calendar. this tradition was started by my mom when i was pretty young, maybe 2. she made a little crafty calendar with pockets for each day leading up to Christmas day, and inside each pocket she would put a little goody for me. this continued every year, without fail, and i have so many memories of me and my sisters waking up early to run to the calendar and see what surprise mom had in store for us that day. sometimes it was really small, like a 5 stick pack of gum or a dollar to buy a coke at school that day. other days, it was a really elaborate scavenger hunt with a cool gift waiting! i was always amazed that we never found the gifts she hid all over the house until the exact moment she wanted us to find them!

writing this is honestly making me so sentimental; add that to someone who has already been an emotional basket case this week, and you have me crying over a calendar. {i love you mommy!} it was just so special. and that really describes my mom. she did everything in her power to make every event in our lives memorable. i can remember she would lock herself in her room when were older to wrap each and every little gift, no matter how tiny {sometimes it would just be a note that said, "Let's go look at christmas lights tonight."} she would wrap it. we knew not to bother her while she made the calendar.

it was a scared part of my childhood, my adolescence, and now i plan to make it part of my children's lives too. i know jonah won't be into like noah yet, but i have big plans including some mini-scavenger hunts around our house! my mom made the actual calendar and tonight i worked on adding the tree, names, and numbering the days. i still have to add some grommets to the top and ribbon so i can hang it. and i can't forget the jingle bells for the tree. i'm pretty sure my mom hand sewed hers on, but i plan on using a glue gun! i'll show you the finished project next week. mom is coming over on saturday to help me finish it up and get all the little goodies ready!! and oh yes, this calendar will be traveling to Disney World with us the week before Christmas!! can't believe that trip is just right around the corner!

my mother in law and i were talking about the traditions she had when my hubby was little, they did the 12 days of Christmas books! i think we will try that one this year!

what kind of traditions do you and your family have? what is your favorite Christmas tradition? i'd love some more ideas!!

like father, like son

these two are just alike.

they both love to be silly.

they both love to be affectionate.

and they love to mix those two seemingly innocent attributes into a crazy combination that results in licking someone's face.

as you can see, noah adores his daddy.

he totally hung the moon.

i think he's pretty great too :)

life lately

so it's been awhile since i've had a moment to gather my thoughts and actually write! i'm still at home with the boys during the week {currently working a half day on thursdays and a half day every other friday} i love dental hygiene..i am really passionate about teeth.. i know that sounds weird to most people, but it's true! my goal is always to help my patients have a great experience and hopefully take great care of their teeth! i love my patients at Dr. J's office! it's also been a great learning experience going into different offices to fill in for another hygienist. i've become a regular fill in at Dr. H's office and i LOVE it there! although fill in work is not ideal, it gives me hours and a small boost when we need it. God is so good!! He is always looking out for us and i know that HIS plans will be fulfilled..whether that is me working full time or staying home..or continuing to do both..i don't know. God has really taught me patience this year..not only with the work situation, but with the boys! they have sure been a handful! noah is 3 years old now and jonah is 16 months! where did my babies go?!? they are so big now!!

i could probably go on for a full blog about the things God is teaching me, but i'll save that for another day. i will say this though, i have really been convicted about witnessing.. there have been so many chances for me to witness, but i hold back. so lately, if i feel the Holy Spirit urging me to talk to someone, or to share something, i'm doing it! it feels so great to know i allowed God to work through me, even if i stumbled over my words or didn't even know what to say. anyways, so Sunday at church, my pastor {who is also my father in law} started talking about how we need to go out and witness more and he has all these ideas he will be sharing with us for ways to better witness! isn't God so good!?!

now it's time for a recap of the last couple of months!! we've had a really busy fall and it has been so fun! October was filled with pumpkin patches, birthdays, and dressing up like superheroes! Noah has been obsessing over Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Ironman, not to mention some other unlikely superheroes like the WonderPets! :) {if you haven't watched WonderPets with your kids yet, you should! it's actually a really cute cartoon and it's on Netflix!} Noah turned 3 on October 21, 2011. we had his party the following weekend right before halloween and of course, it was a themed costume party! we did a superhero theme! the kids looked so cute! jamie and i went as lois lane and clark kent! :) jamie's costume was amazing!!! we had the kids both dressed as superman, but right before the party started noah had a major accident in his undies {we had neglected to put his pull-up on before the party and we were out at a park with no bathroom in sight!} so noah made a quick change into his spiderman costume and we had a great party!

we also attended our church's annual Hee-Haw and the kids had another costume party.. we did the same costumes for that party. we switched it up for Halloween though because noah wanted to be Ironman and all of jonah's costumes were dirty {he's REAL messy these days} so he wore noah's old dragon costume! super cute! after 3 days in a row of dressing up we were so glad it was all over!! noah really loved being in costume and i foresee many days of playing dress up in our future!

okay, on to November! the first weekend started the month off right! we took a girls trip to OKC...just my mom, my sisters, and myself! we stayed in a great hotel, ate at an amazing restaurant {The Melting Pot - serious YUMMO!}, and had some great entertainment in the form of The Girlie Show! i know the name sounds misleading, but it's actually a great craft/art fair. tons of local vendors and eateries, live bands as well as some rockin' girl dj's! the food was to die for...very fancy schmancy! friday night we got there early enough to be one of the first 100 in line, so we got some great goodie bags! then we enjoyed shopping and eating. saturday we toured some of brooke's favorite spots..like the new outlet mall, Cuppies and Joe {a cupcake and coffee shop! so cute!}, a few thrift shops, and a made to order tshirt press store. it was so nice to get together and share some great girly bond time! especially since my sister carah is PREGNANT!!! {i didn't notice until i posted these pics tonight that we all 3 stand in the same order EVERY time for every picture! how funny!!}

brooke, carah, and me just relaxing after a long day of shopping!

my sweet mommy and sisters in front of the sign for the Girlie Show

sisters! all dressed up and ready to SHOP!!

my sister carah had her first prenatal doctor's appointment on november 14th and she got a huge surprise/blessing during her ultrasound!!! :) we are all so excited!!! she is due June 11, 2012 with TWINS!!!

and one more picture for those of you who made it all the way to the end of this post! :) my sweet, sweet boys playing nicely together with play dough this afternoon. want to know what was really going on? they were majorly fighting over every single thing on that table! it's not enough that there were 3 different color of play dough to choose from, and like 30 little "cookie cutters", but jonah just wanted everything that noah had at the moment. poor noah, he tries so hard to be a good sharer, but it's just impossible when your little brother won't let you play with anything unless he can have it! ugh! boys! what's a mom to do?

my guys love riding on the lawnmower

how sweet are these pictures? the boys absolutely love riding on the lawnmower at my dad's house..the boys call him "gramps" {side note: they love riding the lawnmower at anyone's house..i just happened to get pics of them with my dad's lawnmower on these occasions} tonight when we went over to my parent's house, they were of course riding around the yard with pears in hand {the boys think they are apples, but my parent's apple tree doesn't really produce much fruit..the pear tree; however, produces some really yummy pears!} they wanted their daddy to drive them around, so after a quick switcharoo they were back at it! i love how happy they are! i love my guys!

i wish you could scratch and sniff this post!

i just mopped my floors with this stuff and my house smells AMAZING!!!

seriously..it's ridiculously good!

you know how when you're pregnant and you like to smell the laundry detergent..oh you didn't do that? i thought everyone did that..or maybe you just liked the smell of the Swiffer WetJet spray..i liked that too. well this is perfect because it makes your entire house smell like the detergent! :)

i also bought a few Febreeze Noticeables dual scent plugins...yes i bought the Gain scented one! it's awesome! i put one in my bedroom and the other in the living room..i would probably put one in every room, but jonah keeps trying to pull them out of the wall..ugh, baby proofing.

so just wanted to tell you that my house smells good today. and that's a really important thing in a house full of stinky boys.

Weight Loss Wednesday

can i please get an amen that this summer has flown by! i just blinked and it's almost august! we've been swimming a lot, had a great party for Jonah's first birthday {more to come on that tomorrow hopefully}, had a few play dates here and there with some good friends, celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary {i'll post soon on that too}, and have been staying inside due to the unbearable 100+ temps everyday. we've even taken to just walking through walmart or target just to get out and escape the heat!

we kinda let the diet slide for the past couple of weeks, but have decided to really start hitting the gym hardcore again and stick to the diet!! we just switched gyms {the new one is closer and offers a lot more} and i'm gonna start doing Zumba in the mornings and then working out with jamie at night; we might even try out the beginner's spinning class on tuesday nights! {they also have better childcare hours so we can take the boys with us at night when we go together}

jamie is just about to hit the 40 lb lost mark!! i'm so proud of him! i'm still holding strong at -15 lbs..i've hit this plateau that i just can't seem to break..but i know it's gonna happen! i still want to lose around 40 or 50 lbs...i can already feel my body getting so much stronger! it's been so long since i've had any resemblence of "abs"...i'm nowhere close to a 6 pack, but i can feel the muscles underneath the fat and it's a great feeling!

the new gym also offers trainers at no additional cost, so i'll totally be taking them up on that and hopefully they can help whip my booty into shape :)

well, i hear jonah waking up from his nap, so i gotta run..good luck to all you other ladies out there participating in weight loss wednesday!

one

my sweet baby jonah

turns ONE today!

big first birthday party planned for tomorrow afternoon!!

Happy First Birthday little cow :)

We've been gone...

We played a little Galaga...


Ate at the local Pizza Hut...


Wore my hair in braids several times...


And even played with our cars at the Laundromat!! (while mommy and daddy did all the laundry!)


We were gone for a full week to church camp and man are we glad to be home!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Weight Loss Wednesday

lost this week -1 pound!

(this is actually from last week...i'm pretty sure that i'm down more than this, but i don't go off my home scale, only the gym and i have not weighed in this week due to some crazy heat exhaustion...have you ever experienced that?? it's the pits! i haven't been able to work out this week..but i've gained some strength back today and went walking around our neighborhood for about 20 minutes...i also have the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred dvd that i might try later today)

ME

goal: -55 lbs by December vacation to Disney!!!

total lost: -11.75lbs

to go: -43.25 lbs!

JAMIE

goal: -100 lbs

total lost: -26 lbs

to go: 74 lbs!

can i just say how proud i am of jamie!! he is looking so good and keeping me so very accountable...even when i don't want to be held accountable :) i know he is feeling so much better about himself and everyone is noticing his weight loss!! keep it up honey!!!

{i heart my camera}

because i only know how to use one setting {thanks Jenny} and it gives me gems like this one...

and this one!

**just had to mention a cute giveaway over at Lauren Grace Boutique...i would love to win that cute Hog's shirt!!**

Noah & Ninny Weekend {Part 2}

sorry i've been MIA this weekend...we were going, going, going!! we had a great time and now it's monday and back to reality..which in the Brown home meant i spent all day cleaning this house cause it was a pigsty!

and now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

while Jenny was in last weekend, our main goal was to photograph her newest project...DIY Birthday Kits. You can visit her BLOG or check out her awesome ETSY site for more info. Basically, she created some awesome party ideas {most of these are for the boys right now, but she has several girl ideas in store also...she was trying to help me out since i've got the boys!} and all you have to do is purchase the kit, download it, and print everything out!! She included everything you can imagine for a great party: cupcake circles, invitations, banner, treat bag tags, hats...it goes on and on and several of the items {like the circles} can be used in many different ways!! She is so creative and has had such a great time coming up with these ideas and putting them to good use!! we literally staged 3 different birthday parties in my kitchen all day saturday! Cutting out everything takes a little time, but with help {and a few great crafty tools} it comes together in about an hour! We staged the ninja, royal knights, and pirates parties!!! Noah had a blast eating all the cupcakes and cake pops and he was our model for the day for all of the hats!! {he was bribed with chocolate each time!} Jenny and I had a great time and I know her stuff is gonna really take off!! so stop by her shop and check it out! i think you'll love it!!! now for the pics!!

after all of our party staging fun, we had a blast playing with the balloons outside and noah even attached a note to one and let it go!! :) it was so cute "I Noah, and Jonah." pretty sure that's all it said! LOL! he dictated the note to aunt ninny!

jonah enjoyed the balloons too!!

what a fun weekend!!!

Weight Loss Wednesday

there will be no weight loss wednesday this week...

because i couldn't bear to get on the scale at the gym yesterday.

because i ate all weekend

{i'm blaming it on pms and the fact that we made cake pops!}

jamie didn't weigh this week either...

we had nachos with amazing guacamole! cake pops and cupcakes! i even drank 2 cream sodas, a coca cola, and 2 pibb extras! {over the course of 2 days! YIKES!}

i went a litle crazy with the sodas because i've been doing so good lately only having a coke zero every now and then...but jamie brought home the good stuff for the youth all nighter sunday night and i just couldn't help myself...there are exactly 2 pibbs and 8 cokes left in the fridge...HEY EMILY..want some free coca cola??!!

so..i'm a little ashamed..but our normal weight loss wednesday will pick up next week..unless my hormones force me to drive to walmart and load my cart up with every kind of chocolate i can find...no, i'm not gonna do that {i might just need some oreos..or a reese's...oh man} make the junk food cravings go away!!!

never a dull moment with this one...

and if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Noah & Ninny Weekend {Part 1}

this weekend it was all about her...

it is so obvious that noah loves his aunt ninny,

because when she comes to visit, no one else exists.

Jenny came down on Thursday night. we had dinner together with the whole family, then we came back to our house and Jenny showed noah how to make balloon hats and swords! She brought him a few new cars...she even found the Tormentor {Mater's Tall Tales}! he was so excited!!

Jenny spent the night at our house...noah was a little confused. he thought he was going home with her, he didn't realize she was staying with us. he was so afraid she was going to leave him!

Friday we spent the day running errands and getting everything ready for our big plans on Saturday {stay tuned for Noah & Ninny Weekend Part 2}.

We ran into town to get supplies and worked on some projects at the house. We even attempted cake pops, but they were a dud {tasted great, looked awful!}, so Jenny made a new batch on Saturday morning! That evening, we all got together at my house for homemade lasagna. I made two kinds, one had all mushroom and spinach and the other had italian sausage and spinach. my in laws don't like mushrooms but i persuaded them to try it and guess what?! they LOVED it!!

after dinner we packed the kids up and headed for Chuck E. Cheese!! Noah had been talking about going there all day...seriously. about once every hour or so he would say, "we go to Chuck Cheese?" and i would have to tell him not yet!! the boys both had a great time...jonah is almost walking and can just barely reach a couple of the games. he spent time watching me play skeeball and riding around in his stroller. he also really enjoyed the slide this time! noah loves one little game in particular. it is basically just a phone with big buttons! he LOVES it!! we all won a bunch of tickets {430!!} so noah got to pick out a small skateboard, TinkerBell pencil, crazy straw, and a small blue frisbee for his brother!

noah did not want his picture taken at Chuck E. Cheese! he was too busy playing!!

up next: Noah & Ninny Weekend {Part 2} - our ginormous Saturday project!!

insta-friday {on saturday}

okay. so i have a problem.

i feel like i'm always a day behind this week.

not sure why this is, but i totally forgot yesterday was Friday..oh well..

last Sunday, at church with my hubby :)

sweet baby fell asleep on me early this week. i love the rare moments when he is still and lets me hold him..he's always on the move now. almost walking!!

Thursday i let Andrea put some feathers in my hair!! i don't usually go for the super trendy stuff, but i thought this was a really subtle, fun thing to do! i have 2 in...one is light pink and the other is black and white!

Thursday night. jamie made the Tom's shoes i wanted "magically appear" in my closet! his note says, "Abra-Cadabra!" :) he is so thoughtful!!

my new Tom's. bottlecap green! i <3 them!

jonah's first picture with Chuck E. Cheese! :) 5/27/11

jenny {aunt ninny}, jonah, and jamie at Chuck E. Cheese...we all had a great time!!

testing, testing, 1 2 3

Just testing out this new iPhone app.... What did I do before the iPhone?
Hope this works!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:My livingroom!

Weight Loss Wednesday

lost this week -1.75!

ME

goal: -55 lbs by December vacation to Disney!!!

total lost: -10.75lbs

to go: -44.25 lbs!

days until goal: 205

JAMIE

goal: -100 lbs

total lost: -20 lbs

to go: 80 lbs!

FINALLY made it to the 10 pound mark!

WOO HOO!! it seems like such a small achievement, but i'm takin it!

we got a new scale this week...so nice to finally have a scale that says the same thing the scale at the gym says {our old one always showed me about 5-6 lbs heavier! not encouraging!} it also tracks your weight loss and goals, as well as your BMI, water weight, and bone weight?! i have no idea how it figures out how much your bones weigh, but it's kinda cool!

brothers

there is nothing sweeter than the love of a brother; he's a built in best friend!

insta-friday {on saturday}

i found these cute boys at the park by our house... :)

we stopped at the gas station first to get something to drink and noah picked out a Gatorade. he's never had it before, i have no idea why he picked it out

he only drank about 1/4 of the whole bottle...it's still in the fridge

noah running away from me at the park...a common occurrence lately!

{we loved this bridge! so pretty!}

noah is totally type A. loves to organize like his mama!

friday night my sister and i surprised the guys with a trip to Sky Vue, our favorite little getaway place! it's such a nice little bed and breakfast!!

we cheated on our diet and had their amazing pizza friday night {and again for lunch on saturday!} and then saturday morning Janice made us an amazing breakfast!

oh my was it good!!

my hubby and i at Sky Vue. we have lost track on how many times we have stayed here.

we came here on our honeymoon and for a few anniversaries!

best friends...alyssa and noah after the movies today.

{noah wanted to hold her hand, she wasn't sure at first}

we watched Rio. they thought the birds were pretty and funny, we thought there was a little too much adult humor...good thing they don't understand any of it yet.

that was my awesome week! :) hope yours was grand!

a big moment

this boy did something amazing...

after two pairs of "big boy" undies, one pull-up, peeing on the kitchen floor and then on the living room carpet...

he FINALLY peed in the potty tonight!! WOO HOO!!

he was so proud to get to pick out his first sucker!! {we rarely let him eat suckers - very special treat usually reserved for La Fiesta excursions. but while at Sam's the other day, i let him pick out whatever he wanted to be his "potty reward" and he picked out a massive bag of Dum Dum suckers!}

5/18/11 5:45 pm

Noah - 2 1/2 years old

noah and i made him a sticker sheet for the fridge. noah got to pick out things that he would like to get as his "potty rewards!" he got to put his first sticker tonight!! i'm so proud of my big boy!!