Thanksgiving 2012

Playing in Seattle, the International Fountain

Testing out his new 100% Waterproof jacket, it worked, accept unfortunately his jeans are not waterproof.

Brown Fam

Cute little 10 month old nephew James

Uncle D, reclaiming his jacket that his older brother borrowed for two years while he was on a mission

Smile

The Buster Babe enjoying being off the wheels and on his own feet.

Admiring the awesome reflectivity of the experience music project.

Cousins

Doing his gang sign to \Grandma

Here's his little gang sign. Do it, and your on the in.

Mesmerized by the flying helicopter.

Girlie time. Liv's first pedicure. She was so cute and happy to be there. She looked so small in that big massage chair.

Fluffy the bear.

Sports time=cozy time.

Showing off the newly painted nailies.

Thanksgiving dinner. Yum.

Waiting in agony to say the prayer.

Liv's teepee and Indian thanksgiving craft decorations.

Couch full of love.

The two birthday kids make a wish.

Frosting bliss.

Thanksgiving was grand. It was so fun to have a full table for the first time ever. Olivia's birthday was a blast. We went to Seattle, listened to a guy sing while he played the banjo at Pike's, watched a girl from the crowd catch a huge fish, strolled around Pike's, strolled around the pier's and the international fountain, then ate some fish and chips from Ivar's. Swung by Top Pot donuts on the way home. Then, came home for naps and some quiet time and went right back out for more fun at the Family Fun Center for go-cart racing and lazer tag. Liv had a great day. She even came home with some extra bonus presents thanks to her Uncle Derek's good aim and dedication to getting all those tickets for her. What a good uncle.

It was a great trip and so nice to have family here with us. My favorite moments were whipping Derek, Danny, and Jaron at ping pong, going for a late night bike ride, eating Momma Brown's french silk pie, going around the table and saying what we were grateful for on thanksgiving day, and getting to squeeze baby James whenever I wanted to.

Book 1 Recital

Olivia had her book 1 recital a few weeks ago. She worked so hard on it. With a little help from me, she wrote a story that incorporated all of the songs from Suzuki book one and then played them all by memory at her recital. It was about 25 minutes of playing and story telling and she really did amazing. I was so proud of her. She had a room full of people that loved her and who support her.  Olivia was so happy to perform. She didn't look scared at all. She even shushed Warner in the middle of one of her songs and corrected me on the narration of one part of the story. It was so cute. She has worked hard for a little five year old and after the recital was all over I said "Olivia, are you glad you play the violin?" and she smiled and said "Yea Mom. I love it." So proud. So proud. Way to go to our little now - 6 year old.

The video was 25 minutes long, so I put some highlights together to make a short video for those who are interested.

Here it is.



I thought I would share this one too, because I think it's funny. This is Jaron doing a cam check before the performance.

Sister time

I guess he felt safer in her bed.  And why wouldn't he?

Hide and Go Seak

So the other day I was in the kitchen when I hear this soft little voice say "Mom". 

"Yes?" 

"Come find me."

So I walked the living room to find Warner. I really couldn't quite locate where the little voice was coming from. I checked under the couch, and just as my head was peaking underneath the couch I hear 

"Non under there, in here". 

 Ah ha.

 Sneaky Warner. Very sneaky.

Redondo

Jaron had a scout training all day last Saturday, so the kids and I ventured out to a free aquarium on the water front. It was a gorgeous day. My favorite part of the whole trip was letting Buster out of the stroller on the board walk. He was absolutely giddy to be walking around like the big kids!

A few shots of the Bussie

Buster finally spots me observing him from behind my kitchen window and excitedly says  "Hiyee". 

 

Buster loves exploring. Here's a picture of Olivia and Warner in the pine tree cave behind the house.  She's showing him her "collection". Which is a gorgeous collection of rocks and shells and little pieces of dead flowers that she has collected on hikes or at beaches or other places we have visited.
 

Eating some Halloween candy with Daddy. "I'll take that".
 

I'm pretty sure this boy is going through a growth spurt or something. Here is what he ate for breakfast this morning:
1 bowl of apple jacks with whole milk
1 cup of rasberries
1 whole english muffin
1/2 cup more of rasberries
and
1 bannanna
After he would finish one thing he would point at something and kindly say "Uh doe doe". Which means I want something Mom I just don't know how to say it.
 

 

This boy is at such a fun age, an age that requires endless amounts of work on my part, but its fun none the less. He keeps me on my toes. Speaking of toes, he knows where his are and how to say it. 

If you ask him to find his belly button he will find it and start chanting "Bee bee bop. Bee bee bop".

If you ask him where his nose is, he will smile and squish his nose with his index finger and say "know. know". 

His most common said phrases are "Nono Wa-doe Nono Wa-doe" (No no Warner). And. "Nono Bu-doe, Nono Bu-doe" (Nono Buster). 

A Song

         Not in everything, but in some things my kids are extremely low maintenance. Toys for instance. I've been trying to get ready for Olivia's birthday, as well as for Christmas, which I know is sneaking quickly up on me. Lately I've been fishing for ideas from the kids to know what to get them. Well tonight I asked them, "Hey, if you guys could have anything in the world what would you have?" Kind of a broad question I know, but I didn't really want them to know where I was going with it. Olivia said "I would really want that one sparkly treasure box from that store that we saw once, where it has markers and glitter so that you can decorate it". Luckily for her, I have already purchased that for her birthday for a whopping $8 bucks. See what I mean low maintenance. Thank you, Liv. 
          She has told me how badly she wanted that box ever since we saw it in a store a few months ago while shopping. When she asked me if I would buy it for her back then, I said "Maybe for your birthday". I had said this over many desirable items at many a shopping spree, and figured just like all the rest of those fine items that she would forget about it.  After being reminded about that box almost every day or every other day for a few months, I decided that it really was special to her, and I said a little prayer it was still there at Ross, and lucky for me, it was. The day before I bought it Liv said "Mom, even if that box is my only present I would be ok with it". Sweet girl.
          So then, I turned to Warner. "Warner, if you could have anything in the world what would you have". He was quiet. I know how quiet he was, because the lights were out and I was laying right next to him on his bed in the dark. All I could hear was quiet breathing. I thought for a minute that maybe he had fallen asleep, but then I heard him say "A Song". Me- "Really? If you could have anything in the world, you would have a song?" Warner "Yea". . . . "A new song. . . like about an alligator".  He then broke into this little made up song in a very soft and high falsetto:
             "There once was an alligator who swam around in a . . . a lake. He swam and he swam. And then the mommy Alligator came and they were good good alligators. Then a baby shark came, but he wasn't mean. He was a good good shark who was really really nice. Then came a hippo-nu-Nonimus and she was good too. Then a ri-snoss-orus came too. Then a Mommy duckling came and a baby duck. And then a fox ate the baby duckling and the baby duckling was sad". 
    Wow. I didn't see that ending coming. 

Remlinger Farms Field Trip with Liv

It was a little crazy how many five year old's there were roaming about the grounds, but it was so fun being with Liv all day. It made me realize how much I still am not over the fact that she is in school all day. I miss her sweet face during the day.

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I had a great birthday weekend. It was full of great phone calls, sweet phone messages, visits from dear friends, cards, and a great date with the husband. We hit some golf balls, ate some delicious Greek food (which was great until the belly dancer swung her hips a little too close husb for comfort. . . awkward), and then we ran around on Jaron's personal waterfall at work and played some competitive ping pong. It was great.

I'm so grateful for the people in my life that are so good about showing love to me. I don't feel like I'm very good at doing it, but I sure appreciate all of the people that made my birthday one of the best birthdays ever this year. 

Here are some pictures of me at a birthday dinner in Northbend with Gram and Bop, Jeremy and Monica. It was such a great feast, and such a great night with people that are so neat. 

Jaron made the cake. I was so impressed.