HAPPY BIRTHDAY CIE-J!!!

So it's not technically the new year yet, but I couldn't let this day go by with out blogging about the best daddy, husband, and friend I know.  I'm so honored to be his wife and I love him with all my heart.  He is the best daddy to Alanna and works so hard so that I can stay home with our girl.

Happy Birthday Babe!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BROWNS!

Remember that JESUS is the reason for the season.

I will be taking a blogging hiatus until the New Year.  See you in 2013!

Jingle All The Way:

We watched a Christmas Hallmark Movie called "Jingle All The Way" about a cute little dog.  We thought Alanna would love it.  Here's what the website said about it...

Jingle the Husky Pup is a very good dog who does everything he is told. Unfortunately, the only thing Jingles can't do is go home, because he doesn't have a home. But this holiday season, Jingle and all of his friends come home to Hallmark Channel, America's family network.

In "Jingle All the Way," a spirited Husky puppy looking for a home at a Christmas tree farm instantly bonds with a young boy visiting with his parents. As the boy rides away, unable to keep him, the pup escapes and embarks on a snowy journey to find his friend again. Guided by a wise cardinal and the sound of jingling bells, he eventually receives the help he needs from a big man in a red suit just in time for Christmas morning.  

We sat and watched it together as a family and low and behold, at the first commercial break, Alanna was in tears!  Sobbing and bawling for the little puppy that was all by himself and didn't have a home.  OH NO!  I asked if we needed to turn it off, but she wanted to keep watching it.  It was the saddest and cutest thing ever.

I've since discovered that they make a cute little book and husky puppy that comes to life when you read the book.  I may just have to get it.  Or maybe not.  I don't want her to cry again.  Hmmmm.  We even had to pray for the little puppy at bedtime!! 

 Poor sweet girl.

 Santa:

 We don't really "do" Santa at our house.  But I guess all of Alanna's friends at school had been talking about him and she asked if we could go and meet him.  She said she wanted to ask him a question.  I took her to the mall and she was THRILLED to see him.  He winked at her and she squealed.  She kept saying that she had to ask him a question though.  When it was her turn, she ran up to him and had a grin ear to ear.  Her conversation went something like this:

S: Have you been a good girl this year?

A: Oh yes! Can I ask you a question?

S: Sure!

A: Santa, do you REALLY say 'Ho ho ho?"

S: (laughing) Yes, I really do!

A: Okay, good.  I thought so.

That was her big important question that she wanted to ask Santa.  So cute!!  As we were walking back to our car, Alanna said "Mom, I really think Santa is really real.  He's so nice."  =)

Christmas:

So.....we did Christmas while Mamaw was in town...

 And look what she got!  She was just a tiny bit happy.

Let me just add here that we got this at the Mattel outlet in Fort Worth and paid 30% less than what it retails for.  We were so excited!

And look who sat and played with her.  He loved putting it together at midnight too.  It took three grown adults to do it.  Haha.

Monkey Monday:

VeggieBath:

Alanna wanted to watch a Veggietale movie, but it was bath time.  What to do?  

Daddy to the rescue!!!

He drew a TV on her bathtub wall and made his own Veggietale scene.  If you look closely, you can see the remote he made for her down on the blue tub itself.  So sweet!

CUTE GIRL!

 I cannot believe how BIG she is getting.  And just how darn cute she is too. =)

She asks me at least 3 or 4 times a week if she is almost 4 yet.  NO!  Not even 3 1/2!

There are still a few cute things she says, like Bluestick= lipstick.  Or she tries to use big words but isn't sure what they mean.  I told her one day that if I drive too fast, I will get a ticket.  She chimed in, "Yeah, daddy would be angry.  And he would be jealous!"  HAHA.  She also likes to use the word 'actually' too.  It just cracks me up coming from someone so small.

 

 

Christmas Parade:

 Mamaw was here to visit last week and we had our Christmas with her.  It was a lot of fun!  She went with us to our city's annual Christmas Parade and Alanna had SO much fun.  She spent the majority of the time on daddy's shoulders so she could see everything.  Christmas is super fun this year because she is three and really understands it all this year.  The lights, the trees, the presents, Santa!  The first Santa in the parade was a pretty convincing one and Alanna enthusiastically waved to him.  Then came another, and another, and another.  Each time she was a little less enthusiastic about him.  Our parade had a total of 9 or 10 Santas in it.  HAHA.  Each float seemed to have their own.

Then HE came.  A cute old convertible came by with Mickey Mouse riding in the back of it!!!!  Along with Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy.  Alanna couldn't say anything.  She froze.  Her mouth was open and she barely could wave.  I didn't even get a picture because I was so excited for her.  I kept saying, "Alanna, do you see who that is?  What do you think?"  She was starstruck.  It was the absolute cutest thing!  I can't wait to take her to Disney World someday!  

I love seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child.  It could be a strand of plain white lights on a dead tree (WEST TEXAS FOLKS!) and she is amazed at how beautiful it is.  Love it.

<3 <3 <3

Hoorays!!!

We were in Dollar Tree and Alanna spotted these pens with pom poms on the ends of them.  As I walked by the isle, Alanna yelled "MOM, go back please!  I saw something!!!!!"  As I turned around, she grinned ear to ear and exclaimed "Mom, look!  Those are 'hoorays' and I need some!!"  Over Thanksgiving, Alanna went to her first football game and she LOVED every second of it.  I think these reminded her of the cheerleaders from the game.  She cheered HOORAY the entire rest of the day.  All through Wal-Mart, Sams, and at supper that night.  She was cheering as I snapped this picture. =)  When daddy got home, Alanna wanted to go and cheer for him as he was in the bathroom.  HA!

Monkey Monday:

Monkey Monday:

Iphone self portrait. 

Friday Funnies:

We were at the mall the other day, playing with friends, when we saw Santa walking (with a body guard - HA!) to what could only be assumed as his break.  As he was walking, he stuck his hands under his beard and was scratching?  Readjusting?  I don't know.  I just know he had his hands under his white beard and Alanna saw it!  She pointed and said "LOOK MOM, his beard comes off!  That's NOT Santa!"  OOPS!!

Have a nice weekend!

School:

Her teacher has been working with her at "school" and she's able to write her name on her papers now.

Makes me proud. They actually even asks if they could move her to the four year old class room last week since they do more preschool type things in there.  She's only been once but she loves it.  YAY!

Thanksgiving Went To The Dogs:

 

Alanna spread out a blanket on the floor one morning so she could "hold" Buddy.

\

Every single day, this is where you could find Alanna.  On the couch, holding a dog.  Or two!!

She was in paradise.

I made the mistake of telling Alanna that Tucker used to be our dog, but that we gave him to our cousins when she was little.  All she heard was 'MINE' and thought we could bring him home.  Oh mercy.

It was nice seeing my Boogie Boy again.

 I've missed all two pounds of him.

Maybe not the wacky eyes though. ;)

Monkey Monday:

Friday Funnies:

So, awhile back, I shared this picture of Alanna in the park with her friend Caleb.  Notice that she has capri pants on with a heavy coat.  AND her shirt was sleeveless.  She INSISTED on wearing this outfit to the park even though it was windy and about 45 degrees.  I couldn't talk her out of it, so I decided to let her see what the natural consequences would be.  I told her, "When we get to the park you will be cold and whine to me and all I'm gonna say is 'I'm sorry Alanna'."  I secretly put her coat in the car and we left.  She put on a brave face and played for a good five minutes before coming to me and crying "Mommy, please say you're sorry now.  PLEASE mom, just say you're sorry now.  I'm cold!!!!"  

HAHA!  Little toot!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Love, The Browns

Nails Painted:

I have no words...

Little Army:

We went to visit some of our very dearest friends and let the kids play together while the adults chatted.  They always have so much fun.  They have five kids and Alanna just jumps right in and acts like she's number six.  HAHA!  At one point in the evening, the oldest, Caleb, came and told us that he had created a little army.  He was the leader and played his flute.  Behind him was 2 year old Hannah and she had a gun.  Behind her was Alanna with a wooden knife.  And the caboose was Sarah, with an ax.  We laughed SO HARD that all these cute little girlie girls were the 'soldiers' in Caleb's army.  They loved it though.  They marched all around that house!

**Let me just make a disclaimer here**

All of the toys were fake and blunt and were not dangerous at all!  Secondly, we have no problem with Alanna playing with weapons as long as she fights pretend enemies and never aims them at a person or the fun is over.  Just saying...

Monkey Monday:

Spelling Her Name:

Bed Time Fun:

In our house, we try to make bedtime a quick and easy routine.  Miss Alanna always has other ideas though.  She NEEDS a drink, to go potty, to tell the dog good night AGAIN, another kiss, another hug, to blow her nose, her jammies are to scratchy...you get the idea.  I'm really good at saying no and getting her to bed, but a couple of nights ago, she asked to take some pictures before bed.  I couldn't resist.  She won't be three forever and I LOVE to capture this fun time in our lives.

 By the way, she took all of these herself.

Funny story about the dog later this week.

She LOVES this dog.

This is my most favorite expression Alanna makes!  This is the face I see when family comes to visit.  The face I see when daddy comes home from work.  The face I see when she is proud of her work.  I love this sweet girl.

You, Me, And A Cup Of Tea:

We got invited to go with our friends to a tea party with the Sugar Plum Fairy in our local Nutcracker play.  It was SO cute.  All these little girls got to dress up in their fancy dresses and all the teens and young girls from the theater dressed up in their ballet costumes and served the little girls.  We had tea and cupcakes. (of course!)  Then it was time for the Sugar Plum Fairy to read the Nutcracker book to the girls.

This is the ONLY picture I got. (DOH!)  Well, we got one taken with the Sugar Plum Fairy, but I don't have it yet.  They are supposed to email it to me.  Anywho, this was such a fun little thing that Alanna and I got to do together and she had a complete blast.  A lady stopped me on the way out and complemented how Alanna listened to the book and had an attention span longer than some of the bigger girls. =)  Always makes me smile.

Monkey Monday:

Getting ready for Christmas. =)

Friday Funnies:

#1 - Alanna is praying for a sister.  She does every night.  The other day, she asked me "When I get a sister, can I name her Kitty?"

#2 - When Alanna sees anyone on a motorcycle, she always yells in the car "Hey!  You need a helmet!"  I always agree and tell her it's not safe to ride any kind of bike unless you wear a helmet.  BUT....the other day we pull up to a store and park right next to a motorcycle...(you can see where this is headed)...and the man didn't have a helmet on.  Alanna opens her door and says "Hey, you need a helmet on because it's not safe!"  LOL!  Thankfully the man was very nice and told her she was right and to always wear her helmet and be safe on her bike.

This girl.  She ALWAYS has something to say. =)

Alanna The Model:

A sweet lady here in San Angelo has a business making hooded towels and other unique baby gifts.  Alanna has a green dinosaur and a pink flower hooded towel.  They are SO CUTE and really nice quality.  I took a picture of Alanna in her towel (about a year ago) and sent it to the lady to say thank you for our cute towel.  She just emailed me last week and asked if she could use it in her advertising for her business.  COOL!  She is the one front and center in the pink bubble.  My favorite part of the towels are the big teeth!  We are getting Alanna a shark for Christmas.

=)

Lunch Date In The Park Car:

This is Alanna's friend Caleb.  His mom and I made plans to meet up in the park and have a fun picnic lunch.  It had just been 80 something degrees the day before, but unbeknownst to us, it was only going to be 51* the next day. (That's Texas for ya!)  We sat at the freeze-your-hiney-off metal tables and got out our sandwiches and fruit for the kiddos to eat.  Between chattering teeth, they took small bites.  This was nuts.  The wind was blowing and the kids looked so miserable.  AH-HA!  Why not picnic in the car!  Sarah has an SUV and she put a big blanket down in the back of it for the kids to sit on.  We loaded them up and then shut the door.  WOW...it was like we had given them the greatest gift in the world!  They talked and played and ate and laughed.  It was just the cutest thing.

So what did I learn that day?  #1 - Picnics in the car are SUPER fun!  #2 - You know you've lived in Texas too long when 51* is freeze-your-hiney-off cold!  HAHA!

Monkey Monday:

I CANNOT take how big she looks.

Sad Day:

Haha.  Not really.  Alanna just asked if we could take a picture "like a family" and when we did, she said "let's do it sad!"  Haha.  This picture cracks me up a lot.  It was taken by my phone AND Alanna was the one that took it!  

Funny stuff.

Happy Friday!

What's In A Name:

Alanna loves to practice writing things right now.  Usually, her papers end up looking like this "HHHHHATRRRAAAAAAAHHHHTTTTTT."  Those are all her favorite letters right now. =)

But a few nights ago, she asked me to spell my name and Cie-J's name.  She then took the pen from me and wrote each of our names by herself!!  Not to bad for a three year old.

Is That Me Mom?!?

I was going through some older pictures a few days ago and ran across this one of Cie-J and his dad.  Cie-J was just a little over four in this picture.  Alanna stopped what she was doing and just STARED at this picture for what seemed like an hour.  She finally looked at me and said, "Who is that mom?"  I told her it was her daddy when he was a kid and she said "But it kinda looks like me mom?!?!?"  She was puzzled and amazed and had to go and look at herself in the mirror.  =)  He definitely can't deny her.

Monkey Monday:

Deborah & Co.

I just found a website that is doing a fantastic giveaway!!  Go and check them out!  I just love that they make modest clothing for moms.  It's all fashionable and nice and really good prices.

Go HERE to check it out!

Friday Funnies:

A couple of days ago, Alanna woke up and called me to her room.  Most days, she just comes out when she wakes up, but this day she kept yelling for me and insisted that I come.  When I walked in she yelled "SURPRISE!!!!"  I turned on the light and saw four little pairs of Minnie Mouse underwear hanging from her bed posts.  I asked her what she was doing and she said that she was pretending that they were flags.  USA flags and she was saying her pledge.

I laughed for a long time.

Bedtime Photo Shoot:

We took about a dozen photos last night on my phone before bed just for the fun of it.  We laughed and played and had so much fun.  These were two of my favorites.  Doesn't the dog look thrilled???  Alanna sure loves her dog though.  If I would let her, she'd sleep with her in her bed.  The dog loves her too because she gets multiple snacks during the day.

This one makes me laugh hard.  

I can't caption it.  It's just funny.

 

Voting:

I took Alanna with me to vote.

(if you are a Democrat, you may want to stop here)

As soon as we walked in she asked in her a sweet one volume toddler voice, "Mommy?  Where's Obama?!?" She's seen parts of the debates with us and knows who he is because we talk about him often.  When I told her I was going to vote for a president, she fully expected him to be there.  HA HA!

I checked in and went to my poll booth to cast my ballot.  She sat in a chair next to me.  She took one look at what I was doing and asked me what was going on.  I quietly told her I was voting for a new president.  (We've discussed this a lot in our house.) She then said, "Yep, Daddy says Obama tells lies, so we don't vote for him." AHHHHHH!  Thankfully there was only one other person voting when I was, so no one was there to freak out on me.  And, thankfully, we live in Texas so 98% of the people agree with her. ;)  She even got a thumbs up from the man that checked us in.

We got our stickers that said we had voted and left.  The rest of the day, any time someone saw our stickers and commented to her, she would say "I helped mommy vote for Romeney.  (Yes, that's spelled like she says it.)  

They may make a new law in Texas that you can't bring kids next time.

Pumpkin Patch:

We went with our friends to a small pumpkin patch in town.  It was really cute and they had it all decorated for photo ops.  

The kids' mom and I got together and made matching shirts for he kiddos.  The girls has jack-o-lantern shirts and Jack had a mummy shirt.  They turned out pretty cute and we got lots of complements on them.  I made the girls matching bows too.

I let Alanna pick a daddy pumpkin, a mommy pumpkin, and an Alanna pumpkin.  Of course the one she wanted for herself was bigger around than she was and was $30!!  HAHA!  We actually came away with three perfect pumpkins.

 We are going to attempt to carve them this week.  Eeek!

Monkey Monday:

Alanna and Jack

Jack: The New Cole

Alanna's best friend Cole went to PreK-3 and we don't get to see him anymore. =(  However, Alanna has made a new bestie and his name is Jack.  This little guy is SUPER cute and they just love each other.  We ran into his family at Sams and the kids immediately ran to each other and hugged and grabbed hands.  They walked the whole time together like this.  It was just too cute!!  On a funny note, while we were at Sams Alanna needed to use the bathroom.  She went... and while we were washing our hands she said "Let's go tell Jack that I poo poo'd!!!" HA!  No sweetie, we don't tell our friends those things. =)

She's Got A Mission:

Living in a military town, we see a lot of airmen in their ABUs when we are out and about.  Alanna was so happy that she 'matched' them. (such a girl, right?!?) Daddy asked her if she was going to go into the Air Force some day and she immediately said "maybe...we'll see."  HA!  
Then we tried on the flight suit...

Then she loudly exclaimed that she was going to fly a rocket ship!!!  This girl...what will we do with her?!?

I have to take a second and brag too......
Yesterday when I picked her up from school, her teacher took me aside and told me how wonderful Alanna is at school.  YAY!  She told me how she really cares for her friends and shares things with them and shows concern when they get hurt or upset.  I was SO proud!  I told Alanna how happy I was to get a good report from her teacher, and she said "Mom!  My Fruits of the Spirit were showing!"  HAHA!  Can you tell what we've been learning about?  So cute and I had to write it so I would remember it. =)

Ugly Doll:

Alanna is a professional claw machine winner.  She has won THREE times in the last few months.  (and we don't play them all the time either)  This weekend, she had gotten a few dollars in the mail and wanted to try the claw machine at Wal-Mart.  I gave her two quarters and wouldn't you know, she won again!!!  This time, the machine was full of Halloween dolls.  I was hoping to at least get a pumpkin or white ghost, or at the very least a Frankenstein, but instead she gets the ugly zombie guy.  Great.

She carried him all around the store with her and called him 'my boy'. She insisted to sleep with him at nap time too.  When she woke up from her nap, she yelled for me to come in her room.  She had thrown him across the room and he was face down.  She said "Mama, I don't want this boy to sleep with me anymore!  I can't like him anymore."  HAHA. 

Monkey Monday:

(one of our friends at gymnastics outgrew her leotard and gave it to us)

Dogs In Castles:

Alanna usually fills her castle full of her stuffed animals and blankets and anything else she can find.  A couple of day ago she called the dog to come in her castle with her.  I was in the kitchen and saw the dog run by but didn't expect anything to come of it.  Alanna calls me in her room and this is what I found!  Sure enough, she got her dog to go in her castle with her.