Long Time Gone

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!

We know it's been a while. Unfortunately, we've been up to lots of fun and exciting things, but Mom keeps forgetting the camera! So we'll start this entry with a picture of the biggest news on the Brown front:
Yes! Daddy accepted a job and we're moving to South Dakota! He has been hired to do community and economic development for the city and we couldn't be more excited. Some of us are a bit anxious about the cold weather (it's a whopping NINE degrees up there for a HIGH temp this week!), but luckily spring is approaching and everything else about moving there is good news. Daddy is headed up there this week to finalize a few things and then our very long family vacation will soon be coming to an end. Needless to say, we will certainly have much more to write about on our blog in the upcoming days and weeks so stay tuned!

In the meantime...mom has been forgetting the camera at all major events, but we've captured a few events on video, so for your viewing pleasure, here is a pretty dull video of our day to day lives:

Oh, and a piece of my latest artwork...I'm preoccupied with monsters lately...maybe because I've been watching Monsters, Inc (silly parents of mine!)...but when Daddy told me to draw a monster, this was my scary(yet smiling) creation:
More to come...

Okay, Brooke...here you go :)

It was pointed out to my parents that they mentioned in the last blog that Harrison is now officially spending a lot of his mobile time in the upright position, but the latest video only showed him crawling. So, for those of you who would like to see the little guy walking, here he is: (by the way, if you recall, it took a remote control to motivate him to start crawling...we had to up the ante and use food as a motivational technique for walking!)

A video to showcase Harrison's new favorite pasttime...

Bobby's Birthday

Bear with us...there's a lot of pictures...but we had so much fun visiting our cousins in Maryland. We loved seeing Pops and Gams too, but somehow we didn't end up in too many pictures with them -- sorry guys! Maybe one of these days all 4 of us cousins will learn to sit still together. (Oh, and speaking of not sitting still....Harrison is officially walking!!! Yippee!)


We spent Friday night at Chuck E Cheese's celebrating Bobby's actual birthday:

Harrison learned pretty quickly that Bobby didn't like him touching him....so Harrison decided to keep it up and kept leaning over and setting his hands on Bobby's highchair or on his arm or anything that got Bobby's attention and set him off. He definitely takes after his big sister! :)





I got up on stage and showed off my dancing moves with Chuck E Cheese. Unfortunately, I inherited the "Shaw Dance" gene...but it actually looked well choreographed with the robotic movements of the mouse!

Saturday was Bobby's big birthday party. Aunt Jen is the manager of a Gymboree in Maryland and they had his party there. We had so much fun running around, climbing on everything, dancing and popping bubbles! Harrison spent a lot of time trying to ram his head into Abbey...the poor little girl was usually just sitting there looking pretty and along came Harrison to knock her over!



Speaking of baby Abbey...I am ABSOLUTELY in LOVE with that little girl! I think she is the cutest and I love to talk to her in a super high voice and play peek-a-boo with her and anything that makes her smile. I had to sit next to her anytime we went out to eat or when we rode in Aunt Amy's car or if she was anywhere near me. I love her!

Bobby had a really fun Thomas birthday cake with a real train running around a track on top of it....Harrison really wanted that train! Bobby LOVED eating his cake and most of us had blue faces afterwards from the icing. It was such a fun day. Thank you Bobby! Happy 2nd Birthday!

We actually managed to eat dinner out in public twice while we were in town. The first time went so well we tried again on our last night in town. Luckily that night they gave us our own little room in the restaurant because we had a LOT more energy that night and we didn't sit in our seats very much. Pops and Gams were really good sports and took turns taking us for walks to go play the piano -- Mom and Dad really appreciate your help that night! We tried to get a picture of all 4 of us cousins together. At least we all got in the picture even if it didn't turn out great. Maybe next time! Thanks again to everyone for such a fun visit. We miss everyone so much already and can't wait to come back soon! As you can see, I'm exhausted from all the fun, so it's off to bed for me!

By the way, if you're not sick of us yet, be sure to look at my cousins' blogs because Bobby and Abbey both got some great pictures of the weekend too! See the links on the right side of the page...

Diagnosis: Lacking Confidence

Harrison had his belated 15 month check up. He was found to be a healthy, big boy and made sure the doctor knew just how unhappy he was that she wanted to touch him. He did manage to add a new word to his vocabulary: zebra. The doctor has a stuffed zebra on her light to get the kids to look at her while she checks their eyes. He saw it and said "zebra" -- now if only he would say mommy (he hasn't said it since that one day we wrote about it on the blog! He just points at mommy and says dada...oh well.) We're also pretty sure that he's now saying "there it is!" The doctor determined that Harrison not walking isn't because he can't do it, but because of a confidence issue and there's no need to be concerned. The fact that he'll walk while holding onto one of our fingertips was all the proof she needed to declare him okay. Meanwhile he continues to get bigger and bigger. He weighed 25 and a half pounds and was 33 inches tall (and the nice nurse let me get measured too...I'm now 39 inches tall!). He also has all 4 of his 1 year molars coming in...poor guy!

We're getting excited for another big trip this weekend. We're headed to Maryland to celebrate my cousin Bobby's 2nd birthday (and his 1st birthday since he came home!). I can't wait to see everyone! I'm sure we'll have lots of fun pictures to share when we get home next week!

Daddy Daycare

Sorry we're a bit behind on our blog...Mommy had to leave unexpectedly this week to go help a girlfriend and Daddy was pretty busy running the show around here. The good news is that Daddy is pretty good at taking care of us and we were all in one piece, clean and well cared for when Mommy got home last night. Daddy even welcomed Mommy home with a nice candlelight dinner. I think he missed her! I even got to stay up late to welcome her home with a big hug and kiss (and to see what presents she brought for me!). I really missed her....even though it took me a while to notice she was gone (she got the call while Harrison and I were at school and left before we got home that day....it actually took me until after dinner to ask daddy where she was!). Mommy is happy to be home and happy that her girlfriend is doing well. Mommy & Daddy's friend was in a plane accident while flying over in the Persian Gulf. He is thankfully safe and wasn't seriously injured. But please keep him, his wife, and their two little boys in your prayers until he safely returns from his deployment this summer!

Daddy didn't take any pictures while Mommy was gone but we have a ton to share from the previous weekend. We got some beautiful weather for a few days and took advantage of it to get out to the park and to the zoo. I get braver every time we go to the park and have mastered the monkey bars, zip line, balance beam, etc. Harrison is starting to want to follow me on all of these things...he doesn't seem to have much fear yet!

We went with my friend Allison and her family to the zoo and had a great time walking around looking at the animals, playing at the playground and riding the carousel.

We're looking forward to settling back into our normal routine this week. Harrison has his belated 15 month check up on Wednesday so we'll write then to update you on how much he's grown!

Happy New Year

Things have slowed down around here now that all the holidays and festivities are over. Mom & Dad had a few friends over last night to help ring in the New Year and we spent today at our friend's house watching football. We haven't really taken any pictures since Christmas, but Dad caught us sitting nice on the couch together this morning so he took a few pictures. Hope everyone's 2008 is off to a great start!