Thursday, October 31, 2013

AJ Practicing for the Big Night :)

Had to upload this...just too cute. :_)

Fun and Pumpkin Carving

Just picked Jake up from school and he is all excited to go trick or treating tonight.  He can hardly wait.  Actually both boys are currently holding their buckets and AJ keeps saying trick  or treat over and over and over.  :)  Jake was all bubbly on the way home from school talking about the spiders, bats and pumpkins they learned about this week, making Halloween cupcakes today, and "when are we going trick or treating again?"  :)  Its a fun day.  So I was hoping to get this blog up so I can hopefully get some dressed up pictures up later.  Here is hoping AJ is excited to get dressed up...the jury is still out on that one.  :)  But here is some fun until then.
Just like big brother.  :)  My littlest superhero

I know I have had a lot of sleeping AJ pictures lately but he is just so darned cute with his baby in his big boy bed.  :)
 Look out crazy driver.  :)  This was taken last Saturday.  Jake was out on a special Jake and Daddy Day (Jake had wanted some special time with his Daddy) and so I got some special time with AJ...therefore the pictures.  :)

 
"Aren't I cute?"
The Day also included an ice cream cone from Braums.  Yummmm.
AJ loved his Birthday Cake flavored ice cream, in fact he ate every but of it.  :)
It was also a rainy day so when Jake and Daddy came home we hung out inside and played with Lincoln Logs...it was a good day.  :)
Then a couple nights ago we carved out pumpkins.  Jake was so excited as they have been learning about Pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns at school and he was so excited to "cut open the pumpkin, scoop it out, and carve the triangle eyes, nose and happy face mouth and then its a Jack-O-Lantern."  Yes we heard this many times.  :D
This was the first year that AJ really got to take part in it, he was excited too. :)
AJ and I worked on his together
 He was very curious about the pen
We held the pen together and drew on his face for mommy to cut out.
After I cut it out he did a very good job of cleaning the pumpkins face.  :D
Jake also helped with his pumpkin.  He drew its face on a piece of paper and then Ryan transferred it onto the pumpkin.  Jake loved watching every piece come out.
The Lighting.  AJ is very proud to show off his.
 The two pumpkins together.  AJ's is on the left and Jake's is on the right.
AJ had a lot of fun drawing on the face...so he had to draw another face on the back of his pumpkin...and this one he did all by himself.  :)
Jake's alter ego...Iron Man.  :)  No this is not what he is for Halloween this year, but last night he started going to AWANA again at another church and it happened to be a dress up night.  So we saved his costume for this year and let him wear this one that we had gotten at a consignment store as a dress up play item.  (the boys love dressing up as super heroes if you have not noticed already).   He also LOVED going to AWANA again.  :)
This was actually taken this morning.  Jake wanted to draw a scary face for Halloween and then of course wanted a picture of it.  In this picture he is actually saying "Grrrrrrr."  :)  Happy Halloween everyone!!
 
 

Pumpkin Patch Bound!!!

Something very important to our boys this time of year is going to a pumpkin patch.  I don't know what it is, but Jake and AJ LOVE pumpkins.  Always have.  They get super excited every time they see them and when they finally have a pumpkin of their own I worry that they are going to want to sleep with them.  :)  So needless to say one of the first things we had to do this month in our new hometown was find a pumpkin patch to bring them to.  This place was recommended to us and they have animals, pony rides and other fun there.  The boys needless to say had a great time and have loved their pumpkins every day since (even though AJs is already quite squishy  hehe)
We had just gotten out of the car and the boys got super excited and ran up to the fence.  Had to check out the big animal with the massive horns.  :)
AJ was very excited to go and check it out!
I think the boys picked up every pumpkin they had there
They thought these white ones were strange but cute.
So much fun to watch them explore
....and they did a lot of it :)
But before they picked out their pumpkins to take home we wanted to do some other things...like a Pony ride.  This was AJ's first.
However for Jake it was his second...so he was a pro :) (He had ridden one last year and the NC State Fair)
And yes AJ was not very sure about it...this was right before he jumped off the horse mid ride and into Ryan's arms and then sat out the rest of the ride.  Although when they all came out of the corral he was smiling and saying how much fun it was.  Silly goof.
 
"Wwwhhhooooooooo"
Checking out the Llama
...and the ducks
I think he is picking out his favorite one :)
Something about horns...the boys are really curious about them.  Although Jake keeps saying "Hook-em Horns" every time he sees them, which he learned when we were in Texas in May.  Poor kid could get in trouble with that now living in Oklahoma as there is a bit of a rivalry with our college football team and theirs.  :)
Jake really liked seeing the ponies
The boys had the most fun with this simple skeeball game...they could have stayed there for hours.
Then came the serious business of picking out a pumpkin
I think they found them
The happy grin of a boy who found his pumpkin
x 2 :)
Chester's Party Barn was enjoyed by these two.  :)
This was just a day where Jake was being super cute and so I had to get a picture...
...and then the cutest picture in the world happened.  :)  I love my boys and they sure love each other!!!!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Browns...on the Move :)

Hard to believe that it will be one month tomorrow that we walked into our new home, time goes fast.  A few days before that I flew into Oklahoma with my boys and our wonderful Grandma Peg (who came along to help out) and then Ryan drove in that night with a car load full and our dog.  The start to a great adventure for our family.  It had been a really crazy month getting ready and it was still crazy for a while but also exciting to be here and to start shaping what our new lives where going to be like.  Now sitting here I see so many new things have begun and we are all so happy...always nice to know you are where you are supposed to be but we are blessed that we have seen God lead us in every aspect of this move and that is such an amazing feeling.  So here starts our new life in Edmond Oklahoma!!!
 
Before we left though we had some fun with friends that we will truly miss, got a few pictures of those times.  Look forward to keeping up with all of them through phone calls, e-mails, Skype and even visits as we will be going back to CA to see family and friends.  Below was Jake and a friend playing super heroes :)

 The last few weeks we were in our house we were unloading many things so that we would not have to move them.  One of those items was our kitchen table which was falling apart.  So we were creative and ate off the patio table.  :)
 The boys ended up having a lot of fun with it.
 This picture was taken the day after the moving truck came.  Most of our things were gone and we spent the weekend camping in the house.  But hey as long as we had snacks and movies this little guy was happy.  :) 
 And then we arrived to our new home!!!!  We love our house and everyone has settled in well.  Knew it was a good fit as it so quickly felt like a home and not just a house.
 One of the boys favorite things about this house is the fireplace...took us a while to convince them that it was not a stage.  :)
AJ has firmly adopted this cowboy hat...he looks so darn cute in it. 
 Jake of course could hardly wait to get to the new house so that he could set up his new Spiderman/Avengers room.  He LOVES his room so much and it was cute to see his excitement as we put each and every decoration up.
 And he often loves just to hang out in his new room...at this time he wanted to go in and read his bible.  :)  Love it!!!
 AJ got his brother's Cars decor which even though its a hand me down he seems very happy.  We hear a lot of "McQueen...Kachow!!!"  :)
 He snuck into the bottom of this picture to show his happiness :)
 AJ seems to be just like his brother in that he likes to go and just hang out in his room.  Love having a one story house again where they can have more freedom without baby gates.
 Batman Jake.  These are such a sweet gift.  Before we left California we hung out with some friends and when we left I forgot the kids cups.  So my dear friend shipped them to us and when they arrived these glasses were included.  When I talked to her about them she said that her son had gotten them as a Happy Meal toy but said that his friend Jake loves super heroes and he should have them.  How sweet is that!!!  Such dear friends that we are going to deeply miss but look forward to seeing again!
 The house also has an office which we are using for a playroom.  Even has doors that we can close if we want to.  :)  This was an afternoon that Jake and I made a pretty cool train track.  :D
 One thing that we were really looking forward to with moving here was more outdoor life.  The kids love our new backyard and there have been a good amount of weekdays where Ryan came home and he and Jake threw a ball around and AJ just played happily.  True I was inside making dinner, but it made me so happy to watch them.  (please ignore the trash cans...we had A LOT of trash those first weeks of mega unpacking)
   My little AJ.  So happy in his new Mickey Mouse Jammies!!
My boys are so close and I love to watch them hang out.  Here they are enjoying one of their favorite things...coloring.  :) 
First rainy day....can you believe how fast two young boys can destroy a playroom!!!! 
They were very happy once the coloring table came out again. 
 One big piece of news is that Jake started his new school!!!  Quite a beauty isn't it?  And the best part is that it is literally 2 minutes from the house.  He is enrolled in Pre-K at the elementary school that he will be staying through 5th grade.  So awesome for this little boy who is not great with change.  He goes half days 5 days a week and LOVES it!!!  He is already learning so much and he is having so much fun.  And since he goes during AJ's nap time, its made things easier on little brother too.  :D 
 Our little cowpoke
 Ahhhh sweet boy
 One of the days AJ disappeared I found him in his room playing with his piano.  this little boy loves music!!!
 Too bad he is not very happy though ;)
 Also Ryan and I just joined the current century and got iphones.  I have downloaded one game and so far Jake approves  :)
 Oooooohhhh my crazy boys.  These guys love to wrestle at night...note the pillows by the fireplace...
But they do have a lot of fun. 
 And in case you were thinking "poor AJ"....don't...he gets his licks in too :)
 I love watching their creativity.  On this night they lined up a bunch of pillows and had a blast all night long running across them.
 Such a sweet sleeping boy.  I had to get a picture though as this was one of his last times sleeping in a Pack N Play.
 The boys rediscovered this remote control toy as I gave it fresh batteries.  They love it and think its the best new toy ever...even though its over 3 years old.  :)
 And a big first.  On Saturday we finished up child proofing AJ's room and introduced him to sleeping in a big boy bed.  He was really excited about it and happily slept wonderfully in it the very first night.  He has been doing well since then.  Did revolt against a nap one day but on the hole has been doing great!!!
 Sleeping in bed with his baby.  :)  A friend gave this to him before we left as he had always loved her daughters.  Its his new lovie that always sleeps with him and often comes with us to pick up brother from school.  He is a very good "little daddy."  :)

Well that's all for now but I do have some pictures from us taking  the boys to the pumpkin patch last weekend...will try and get those up before Halloween.  Happy Fall everyone!!!