The Brown Family: January 2008

Hi all. There really hasn't been anything exciting going on here. I don't have any pictures, but it is supposed to be nice here on Sunday and Monday so I am hoping to get the kids outside a lot and maybe get some pictures then.

Caleb is doing really well with his reading. I am so proud of him. It is so wild to be driving around and hear him reading street names or store names. Oh, and we are going to sign him up for a coach pitch baseball team - he seems really excited about that. The dad of one of his classmates is going to be coaching a team, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm sure that will provide plenty of picture opportunities.

Hannah went on her first sleepover this past week - one that was not with a family member. She is such a girly girl and loves her friends. If she could go over to a friend's house or have someone come over every day, she would be the happiest kid in the world. She has such a big personality and I love seeing it every day.

Barry and I are doing well, too - just in case you were wondering. We have everything we need, most of what we want and our family is healthy so we are very blessed. I thank God every day for our blessings and for the family and friends that are and have been in my life.

Well, that's it for now. I will try to post some pictures in a few days. Have a great weekend.

First, I must warn you that there a a bunch of pictures, but then with me that is nothing new.

I can't believe that I didn't get a picture of our Christmas tree this year. It really is/was a pretty tree. I must do better next year a get a picture. Our original plan for Christmas was to celebrate Christmas day at home with our family and then go to TX and then TN. Well, at the last minute Barry found out that he couldn't be gone from work as long as we were planning to be gone. So since we saw Barry's parents at Thanksgiving and had not seen mine since August we went to TX and will be celebrating Christmas with the Brown's in February, when Caleb has an extended weekend from school. The kids are going to go through present withdrawal come March - they've only been opening presents since their birthdays in November.

Now on to the pics...

This is what Santa left for Hannah. She is very much into the Princess and Barbie thing right now. She has two Barbie movies and could watch them over and over all day long if we let her. Oh, an she was very specific about the Baby Born that she wanted. It had to be the swimming one. She was very happy with her gifts from Santa.

And Mr. Caleb was very pleased with his gifts from Santa, too. He is on a big Star Wars kick right now, so he thought the light saber was awesome. Oh, and at the last minute I thought it would be neat for us to all have some new Christmas pajamas. I was just able to find pajama pants for C, and then had to improvise with a t-shirt.When Hannah was getting PT and OT, it was very difficult for Caleb to understand why Hannah got to play and do all of these neat things, but he couldn't (however, the therapists were awesome and would include him). I had bought Barry and PS2 Pac-Man game a few years ago and pulled it out for Caleb to play during these therapy sessions. Well, he beat Pac-Man World 2 a few months ago and was able to find him and Pac-Man 1 for Christmas. He was super excited - can't you tell?One of Hannah's gifts was a set of Mrs. Pattycake's videos. She loves to sing and dance along with Mrs. Pattycakes. Oh, and how do you like her Christmas pajamas. They were a little big and I nearly didn't get her in them, but somehow I convinced her that they were okay to wear, even if they were a little big.
I couldn't pass up this shirt. If you enlarge it you will see why.
Another one that I just had to get.
Caleb and Darth Vader. For some reason he really likes Darth.
Opening some presents in TX.
Caleb digging in to his stocking - it's a big thing with the Dean's. You never know what you might find in you stocking - especially as you get older.
This year Hannah got quite a few "beauty" products - lip glosses, toe/fingernail polishes and bath fizzies. She is definitely a girly girly girl.
We we to my Aunt's house for more Christmas and all of the cousins that I grew up with now have kids of their own (pictured below). I was surprised at how crazy a group (5) of 2-6 year olds can get. How come I don't have that much energy any more??? There was one present at the party that was "wrapped" in a huge bag. After the gift was taken out of it, the kids had a blast getting in the bag and playing like they were the present.
Just a cute picture of C.

Hannah checking out Nana's tree.
We kept trying to get a picture of Hannah with Aunt Sarah, but H was not being very cooperative. You would think that we are trying to get her to eat a bug or something.
This was the best I cold get, and it's blurry. I guess the camera thought that I wanted a clear picture of the purse, and not the people.
I just thought this a a good picture of Caleb and Poppi.

Earlier in the pics I mentioned that Hannah was really into Barbie and one of the gifts was Santa was a Barbie from the movie. Well, Mom, I-I-I mean Aunt Sarah, found this awesome dress-up dress for Hannah that was exactly like her Barbie. As you can tell we was super excited. Admiring the dress.
It didn't take her long to get it on. The back view.
The front view. I think that she wore this the rest of the day.
Well, that's it for the first part of Christmas. Thanks Mom, Dad, Granny, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Russell for a great TX Christmas. Unfortunately we were not able to see Uncle Luke and Aunt Katie this trip, but I plan to see them more this summer. School starts back for C on the 7th and for me and H on the 8th. I am going to try to get back on the school bedtime schedule tonight. I don't think the going to bed part will be hard to re-start, it's going to be the getting up and gone by a little after 8:00 that;s going to be hard to do. Can't wait.