It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It's been quite a while since I've blogged - we've had a lot going on here. It's officially my favorite time of the year, starting with Halloween and going until Valentine's Day. I know - it's a big holiday season, but during that time, all of the important events take place for me (Halloween, Thanksgiving, my anniversary, Christmas, New Year, my birthday and Valentine's Day)! That's actually a very selfish point of view, I just realized. It's also Lane's and Dane's birthdays, too, so it's not all about me! Anyway, I just love this time of the year.

I mainly wanted to share with you the official 2007 Brown Christmas picture. It didn't quite turn out exactly how I wanted - it seems a little blurry to me, but I just loved the expression on Dane's face. I think it threw him off to be smiling at an unmanned camera, so he came out with this great little fake smile. I had never seen it before, but I love it!

I also wanted to catch everybody up on what Dane has been up to lately. I am most proud of his latest development. In his Bible class, they have been working on memorizing John 3:16. I had not heard him say it yet, and the other night, he picked up a Bible in the living room and said, "Let's read a Bible story". So, I started to grab the Bible and I was going to find a story to read to him. Before I could grab the Bible, he opened it in his lap, and he started in, word for word, reciting John 3:16. He gets a little caught up on a few words, but once he gets toward the end around the phrase "should not perish", he's home free. There are so many developments that make me proud of him, but there is absolutely nothing like the feeling you get when you hear your child saying the words from God's Word! So precious! Lane and I keep trying to get it on camera, but he doesn't like to perform for the camera, and I am not very good at being discreet with the camera. I'll have to work on that. I'll try to get it and post it on the blog.

Anyway, some more big news we have is that I'm pregnant, and I'm due in July! We are very excited about meeting the baby that will complete our family! I am almost ten weeks along, and I have my first doctor's appointment this coming Monday. That's another reason that I haven't blogged in a while because we've known about the baby for almost six weeks, and I know that I would have let it slip!

I hope that you are all doing well and that you are enjoying the wonderful season!

Trick-or-Treating Fun!

Today was a great day for us here. This is the first year that Dane has really started to understand the concept of Trick-or-Treating. I was a little concerned at first because we had bought white tights to go under Dane's costume. I was a little afraid that I might be scarring him for life, since, as I was putting them on him, he started crying, "No thanks, Mom! No thanks!" Lately, when he gets upset or embarrassed, he runs to the corner of the dining room and sulks, and that is what he did after I got his costume on. However, he started coming around to the idea of it once I showed him how he will get candy in his basket. So, no harm done, I don't think!

From 3:30 to 5:30, all of the merchants in downtown Kilgore passed out candy to the kids. They blocked off most of the downtown streets, and there was a huge turnout from the town. We met our friends Holly and her daughter Winter, so that Dane and Winter could walk around together. They both went as M&M's, Winter as the green dark chocolate one, and Dane as the blue almond one. They were really cute together. One of the highlights of our experience there was getting candy from the biker dudes at the motorcycle shop. Dane really liked that, especially when he saw a motorcycle parked on the sidewalk. He walked away making motorcycle noises! Then, later on, upon spotting one of many Spiderman costumes, he screamed, "Mom, I found Spiderman! I found Spiderman!" I think he really liked seeing all of the different costumes.

After we got tired of waiting in line and walking around downtown, we took the kids to McDonald's for a quick supper. As we got out of the car, Dane exclaimed that he needed to get his basket out. I had to explain that we weren't there for candy, just dinner. So, I guess he was beginning to get the idea of trick-or-treating.

Then, from 5:30-6:45, our church did a Trunk-or-Treat out on the front lawn and parking lot. The neighborhood that our church is in literally draws hundreds and hundreds of kids, so we thought it would be a good way to reach out to everybody. We had a lot of people participate, and we all had a great time!

After our evening service and Bible class, we headed over across the street to the home of one of our church members, who hosts a Halloween party every year.

So, once everything was all said and done, Dane and I had been trick-or-treating and partying for basically 4 hours, if you subtract the hour spent at church. We had a great time together, and it really brought back a lot of fun memories from when I was a little girl!

Dane's 2nd Birthday Party!

Well, it's very hard to believe that it's already time to have another birthday party for Dane! His birthday is not actually until Thursday, the 25th, but it was most convenient for us to have his party this past Saturday. There was no question that Dane wanted a Cars themed party. I had taken him to the party supply store a few weeks back, and he saw the Cars stuff and said, "Mater!!!". That's one of the characters in the movie that he loves, so I knew it would be a hit!

We had a lot of people from church as well as some of our family come, and we had fun and opened presents and ate cake and ice cream and then ate stuffed baked potatoes, and then played with all of the presents Dane got for a while. I will say this...a 2 year old party is a whole lot livelier than a 1 year old party, but it was lots and lots of fun, too!

Here are some pictures from our fun day...

Dane made sure that he had on proper headgear for opening presents! He insisted on wearing his bike helmet for a lot of the party.

Trying to pry open the packaging to this car! He told me, "Mom, I need scissors!" For some reason, that's a new and often request with him lately. Not sure where he learned about scissors - I guess Sunday school?

Nana & Pa Pa came through big-time with this full A&M football uniform, complete with helmet, shoulder pads, jersey and pants! Dane immediately switched over to wear his new helmet, shoulder pads and jersey for the remainder of the party.

As usual, my mom went above and beyond on the birthday cake. Thanks for the great cake, Granna!

Growing up, it never occurred to me to ask if I could blow out the birthday candles over and over again. For some reason, I thought we should keep on relighting the candle to let Dane get the hang of it. It was lots of fun. I think I blew it out the first time, then Lane the second time, and the third time, Dane really blew it out all on his own! That was really exciting!

Enjoying eating some good cake and ice cream!

Just some weird shots from a weird boy!

The last few weeks, Dane has come up with some very interesting outfits all on his own. While we were watching the Texas A&M/Oklahoma State football game, he came in wearing his own version of shoulder pads. He figured out where Lane's underwear drawer is, and he takes about 10 pairs of underwear and wears them over his head on his shoulders, and then runs around with a football. I think it's the weirdest thing I've seen him do yet! Thankfully, he only uses clean underwear. I usually try to keep all of the dirty laundry picked up anyway, but this new uniform development has really made that one of my top housecleaning priorities!

I'm not too sure, but I think he uses this basketball basket as a helmet. It is a cushiony basket, so I guess it's a pretty good choice for a makeshift helmet. As you can see, it is useful to help his mom clean the sidetables as well as to ride his 4-wheeler!

What do you think - I probably need to get this little guy a football helmet and shoulder pads, huh?

1st Annual Pa & Granna Campout

It's been a while since I posted, so I've got quite a lot to catch up on. We've been really busy around here. A few weeks back, Dane, me and Robyn and her three kids all met at Mama & Daddy's house for the 1st Annual Bowers Cousins Cookout & Campout! Daddy built a fire out back to roast hotdogs and marshmallows. He set up their tent about 2 feet from the back door. Honestly, I really doubted that the kids would want to stay in the tent for very long, but they surprised us all. We had lots of fun hanging out by the campfire, and we even sang the "Weinie Man" song from Camp Deer Run before we cooked the hotdogs. As you can see from the pictures, the kids mainly filled up on the cold hotdogs in the package, while we were cooking the rest. So, by the time they were cooked, the kids were pretty much already full! It was still lots of fun, though. At about 9:00 that night, we all got our jammies on and piled into the tent for some more fun! Poor Mary Nan had a pretty nasty cold, so she and J.J. went into the house and went to bed at about 9:30. Dane and Laura stayed in the tent until about 10:00, which we thought was pretty good for as young as they are. It was so much fun, and I hope that Mama and Daddy will let us make it a tradition each year!

Daddy and the fabulous campfire

Dane, relaxing by the fireside

The kids seemed to prefer the hotdogs straight from the package!

Too much excitement to look at the camera!

Dane & J.J. really enjoyed playing with Pa and his flashlight in the tent.

Dane also enjoyed climbing over Pa for about 15 minutes!

Looking for Terry Cat outside the tent window!

A Cousin Field Trip to Chimp Haven!

A while back, Robyn told me about this refuge place for retired biomedical research and entertainment chimpanzees. Several times a year, they open it up, free of charge, to the public to come and see the chimp habitat. So, Saturday, we decided the kids would love it, and we made our way to see them. It's called Chimp Haven, and it's located southwest of Shreveport. I'm not sure if any of you ever saw the show Lancelot Link, a show we used to watch on Nick at Nite. I think it was made back in the 60's as a parody of the show Get Smart. Well, Joe David and I especially enjoyed watching that show on our long, three week vacation in July 1988 to Raleigh, NC, when Robyn got to go to Duke University to participate in a GT program. Anyway, while we were there, we ate TV dinners and watched Nickelodeon all day and night (so much fun), and our Mom sewed us all Jams to wear (Oh, the days of Jams)! And, we discovered one of the best shows ever created...Lancelot Link. It's a show with all Chimp actors! It's very funny, especially to a 5th grader and 2nd grader! Ah, good memories!

So, part of me was very disappointed when these retired entertainment chimps didn't put on more of a show, or any at all!

It was a good day, though, and we got to see the chimps get fed, and the kids all got to play with the binoculars and each other a lot, too!

There are the Chimps

Giving the SWEPCO lightning bug a high five!

Dane & J.J. decided to share Robyn's water!

One of Mary Nan's many poses

Our attempt at a group shot

Dane's getting a closer look

Of course, there's always time to give a little sermon and lead a song! Can you think of a better way to use the information sign?

Look Who We Got Today!!!!

We have a new member of our family - Meet Miss Spanky Wendell Brown. She is an 8 week old brindle boxer, and she is the sweetest little puppy. She already sat for Lane once, and when we went outside, she fetched a little ball three times in a row! She also enjoyed running around the backyard with Dane, which was really funny to watch. We really like her, and we hope you can come and meet her soon, too!

Having a Car Wash!

The Happy Car Washers after a job well done!

I guess I hadn't really looked at my car lately (like in months and months), but I looked at it this morning and noticed how disgustingly dirty it was. So, after lunch today, Dane and I decided it was time to have a car wash. We did it the old fashioned way, by hand with dish soap, and we had a lot of fun. Dane mainly enjoyed pouring out my soapy water bowl, so I had to keep filling it back up! He also piddled around in the garage some and did some work on Lane's weed eater that doesn't work.

So, if any of you need any good, messy carwashers, we work for cheap!

Checking over Mom's work

Taking time to smile for the camera!

Squeezing out the rag

Doing a little detail work

Detailing the tires and wheels

Biscuinuts!

Last night, after church, Lane held his annual Fantasy Football League draft. It's way too big of a deal each year, in my opinion. Lane always has a huge conference call for about 2 or 3 hours. (Notice in the picture that my husband stole my side table to be used for extra desk space for the draft! Weird!) Well, Shayne, his brother, is in the league, so he came out with our nephew, Caleb, for the afternoon and evening. Caleb is 11 years old and lots and lots of fun. He and I had big plans to make our special culinary treat, Biscuinuts, during the draft! The last time he was at our house, I fixed those donuts made out of the cheapest bisquits, coated in a cinnamon/sugar mixture. They were, evidently, a big hit with him. So, he asked if we could make them and if I could write down the recipe for him. He also prides himself in the fact that he named them biscuinuts. So, we made a great batch and ate almost all of them. The rest, we wrapped up in foil for him to take home and share with the rest of his family. Billie, his mom, told me today that he couldn't wait to get her to try one this morning for breakfast. He's so funny!

So, here are the pictures to document our fun night, and also a couple of Dane while we were watching Cars. He was laying really funny, I thought!