May 12, 2008. Kind of a long video, but funny. They both love to do this and will do it for a good 20 minutes. Sometimes Ab will sing, sometimes not. They were both still a little sick. Dax starts his inhale laugh and it makes him cough :) I wonder if anyone ever did this on the horse?? Let me know Renee.

This is about a month ago. This is how Dax rides it by himself. He'll get really going, but I haven't got on it video yet. He's so boy. He'll get going really far back. He hasn't tipped over yet...

Ab: Knock, knock

me: who's there?

Ab: Mommy

me: Mommy who?

Ab: Mommy Banana!! Haha!!

Ab: Knock, knock

me: who's there?

Ab: Mommy

me: Mommy who?

Ab: Mommy Banana!! Haha!!

5 years

Happy Anniversary to us. What a fun and hard time it's been. I love him more today then I did that day. I love how we can talk, or how not talking says everything. I love learning and growing as a family together. I love how he pushes my boundries and I push his right back. I love how he can calm me. When everything is going crazy, he can just walk in and it's all good. I love how I have become a wife and a mother. How I have earned those titles and work at them daily. I love our goals. I love the hugs. I look forward to the road trips and camping.

We were able to go to dinner tonight, thanks to my mom. A much needed outing after the weeks we have had being sick. It was great to start and finish a conversation :) It was nice to catch up and get filled in on what has been going on and what is coming up. Really nice. I'm not sure if I'd ever hear about some of the things if we hadn't gone to dinner. It was fun to talk about the past five years, the cycles that are in our lives, and the plans for the next five years. I really appreciate everything that he is doing for our family, and am so glad that we are who we are, and that we are together. Go Team Brown!

Five years isn't a long time, but look what we've done! Here's to five more, and five more, and five more, and five more, and and and....

just a note

for a couple of days after the swimming party, if Ab asked to go somewhere and I said no because we are still sick, she would say "Well then I want Aunt Megan take me!" It was pretty hilarious.

Cinco De Mayo

We are on the home stretch of JB coming home, and I know the kids are just going to hug him for hours. If they can get past me :) I got sick on Saturday and it got worse today. Mom planned a Cinco De Mayo pool party, so I asked Meg to pick Ab up so she could go and have fun with everybody instead of being stuck at home again with me. I heard she didn't eat any dinner and sat next to the pool for almost an hour before she really got in. Then when they went inside, she ate a huge bowl of ice cream. That's my girl. Aunt Betsy brought her home, and Dax gave her a big hug. It was kinda fun to be home alone with him. He's such a happy kid. He let me tickle him for about 30 minutes and then crawled back and forth through the tunnel. A holiday for the books :)

Let's get it started!!!

Well Ab was talking about a friends birthday party for weeks. She had it all planed there we were having pink cake and pink candles and pink, pink, pink. I was trying to get a theme going so i could think of games and decorations, but all i was getting was "a pink party". So I invited the list of friends she rambled off, still not sure what we would do. "Play, sing Happy Birthday, blow out candles." was the starting point Ab gave me. Just 3 things to accomplish. So it was Wednesday night and we make a trip to Zurchers for some inspiration. Hoping that I will see something pink :) I find something and go with it, and walking to the checkout we go down the character isle and Ab says, "mom, how about we have a _____ party?" naming off everyone that we go by. Dora, Strawberry shortcake, Elmo, Barbie, Princess, Abby Cadabby. I could have gone with the last one, but what we had in the cart was going to be good...

Thursday night, JB helped me until about 12:30 in the morning getting everything ready.

Friday morning, I took it slow and what ever didn't get done, just didn't get done. I didn't want to stress over my daughters 3 year old birthday party. But then again, it was her first, and there in laid the stress...

Sarah, Caden, Jenna, Keoni, and Charlyie came a 12:30. I had a table set up where they got to make maraccas out of easter eggs with a wide popcycle stick glued to the bottom, rice, and stickers. And pick out a tamborine. I bought mostly pink, and was suprised when the other colors got snatched up. I put together a CD of Music and Movement songs, and the party began! We sat in a circle making music, skipped around the living room, tossed bean bags, did the limbo, and "went to the zoo". Item #1 on the list - check!

Then we moved over to the table for item #2. Sing Happy Birthday. I got it on video, and I think Ab is the only kid singing with the adults :) She got embarassed or something for item #3, blowing out her candles, but got the job done. I borrowed a funest ice cream sandwich mold from Whit, which I made the yummiest treats! And cute too if I don't say so myself. Of course, pink ice cream and pink cupcakes!!

Ab was a sweet girl and let her friends help her open the presents, which were totally fun. Twist up crayon, and huge coloring book, some garden supplies, light up flip flops[which haven't been taken off for more than a few hours], a beach towel, sand buckets and shovels, a LITE BRITE, and a memory card matching game.

Everyone got to take their instruments home, and a copy of the Music and Movement CD I put together. ~this morning when I was distracting Ab to get her in a good mood I told her it was going to be her birthday tomorrow. "Again?!"

Wordless Wednesday - Put a smile on your face

Happy Earth Day!!

I've been getting stuff together for this project, and thanks to the donations from family and friends , we finally did it with Ab today. I read about it in the Family Fun magazine. Mini greenhouses. I thought that it would be fun for her to plant the seeds and be able to water and watch them grow. I set up a table in the dining room and finally found enough containers the other day that we were able to play in the dirt today. She was excited to help pick what to plant, and liked poking her finger in the soil to make a spot for the seeds. We planted zucchini, summer squash, mini pumpkins, peas, 2 kinds of zinnia's, cantaloupe, and Abby's favorite-cucumbers. All through the rest of the day, I'd find her trying to water things around the house with the watering can. :)

I love the way it looks. I found myself checking it every couple of hours to see if anything was happening :) I forgot about tomatos... we'll have to add another tray!

couch potato

Every once and a while, Ab remembers that it's fun to pull the cushions off the couch and build forts and jump on them and lay on the couch. D likes it too, because he can pull himself up on the couch. She got brave last time and built a tower and climbed up on her own. She wouldn't jump off though. Just slowly sat back down and climbed down. She added a 4th cushion, and when she tried to climb up it toppled over. She didn't think it was very funny even though I was laughing :)

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*note: loves this Dora shirt. trys to wear it everyday, and doesn't like when I say I'm going to wash it.

GEOCACHING!!!!

Our new family fun time past time! I read about it here. Brief explanation: "Geocachers use GPS (global positioning system) technology to locate more than 430,000 caches, or treasure boxes, hidden in nearly every country in the world, from busy downtown areas to underwater caves. These caches contain treasure, usually toys or other little trinkets." It also usually has a little log page that you can sign. So when I read about it MONTHS ago, I totally knew it was something that our family would enjoy. Plus, JB could get a couple of GPS units for "me", but use them during hunting season :) So when the GPS came, I logged onto geocaching.com and downloaded about 15 caches that were within 5 miles of our house. On our first try we went to one that was hidden in a nearby park, that on the night we went, was packed with the first night of little league practice. We explained it to Ab that we were going treasure hunting. We didn't find it. Ab was bummed and so then we had to explaing that we don't always find it on the first try. So a couple of nights later, and a different cache we set out.

The GPS only gets you so far, and then you have to start turning over rocks and looks in trees and under stuff. JB only had one good hand, and Ab wasn't sure what we were looking for, and I was holding Dax. Hummmm..... :) It was a little hard. So then I found one that told us exactly where to look on a bridge to find the cache.

HOORAY!! It was a hide-a-key container so all that was in it was the log page, but still fun! We let Ab "write" our name and I put it right back where it was hidden. "Mom, we found the treasure!!!!!!" I downloaded a couple that are hidden out by Intial Point, so when the weather gets warm, JB has 2 hands, and Dax gets some shoes, we'll be tracking down the treasure!

*note: JB's cast. None of his jackets had big enough sleeves to fit the cast through, so he had to wear this nice one that was in the closet. Not sure where I got it.

*note: anyone that wants to come out with us is more than welcome!! The more treasure hunters the better!!!

Loving spring weather!

Saturday, we had a great day. It was the Holland spring home show, so we checked out a couple of houses, had lunch down by BSU, came home for lots of naps, and played outside while JB got a flat tire on the skid steer. We went to the back yard, and Ab poured water on all the rocks with the watering can while Dax explored the water fall :)

Watched a movie(which I partially watched because I was getting Dax ready for bed), and after I got him laid down, I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I came back and grabbed Ab away from the movie, wrapped up in a blanket and went and laid down in the front yard for some star gazing. Any time I pointed out a constellation and told her what it was, she would say "uh-huh". Do you see those 3 stars in a line over there? "uh-huh". that's Orion. "uh-huh". it was pretty cute. a great day.

Letter of the week

Since Ab wants to learn to read, I've started a "letter of the week" project. We are only on the 3rd week, but it's going good. On Wednesday night we take a piece of newsprint paper, and write the letter. Then fill in the page with words, and pictures of the words, that start with that letter. Then it goes up on the wall and we reference it during the week, and at the library we pick out books that have that letter on it.
She had trouble with "C" this last week. She wouldn't repeat it back, and days later, still couldn't tell me the name of the letter the way she did with "A" and "B". Then yesterday, a light bulb goes off, or is it on?...., in my head. The letter "C" is also a word. See. We hung up the poster the first week and said,"See, Abby. This is the letter "A"." Then the next week,"See Abby. This is the letter "B"." Then this week, "See Abby. This is the letter "C"." And probably in her head, she's been waiting for us to tell her what letter it is!!!! "What is it mom?!" It's the letter C. What is it Abby? "What is it mom?!?" It wasn't clicking for either of us. But now I get it! We'll have to come back to that one later :)
We pulled into the Albertsons parking lot last night and she says, "Are we going in there? The one with the "A"?" :) One step closer.

*note: the children's books at the library have a sticker on the binding of the book that says "ABC reading". So the the past 3 weeks, EVERY book had an "A","B", and "C" on it because of the sticker! :)

On the go!

He's got it down! If he falls over, he can get himself back up right there. Then he takes off with his hand up by his shoulders , in a little ape walk. I remember Ab walking like that too :)

Wordless Wednesday - "like daddy wears it"