Thanksgiving Day

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Thanksgiving day was great. The food was delicious and the company - perfect. Yet again, so much to be thankful for this year.

The boys and I hung out at my parent's neighborhood playground in the morning. The boys love playing there and I love knowing that Lindsey played in the same spot when she was Miles' age.  

Griffin actually said, "mommy, take my picture!" and then posed on this little piece of equipment. Love it.

We walked back to my parents' house through the greenway. It was a beautiful day.

Love the face you can see in my dad's old birdhouse.

Lindsey and Jason were home. They just got a Nikon D3000 and a 35mm 1.8 lens.  We were taking similar pictures with similar settings and then comparing photos. It was fun.  If you guys move closer to Charlotte we can do stuff like this more often!  :)

While we were busy snapping pictures, Dana whipped up an amazing pie crust from scratch. Talk about rock star. (Photo credit to the Schuberts)

Dana is also in the double-digits of her wedding countdown so there was definitely a bunch of wedding chatter. (Photo credit to my dad)

(Lindsey and Dana are smiling, but are they really thinking - "stop being so bossy, Brooke?" I have sort of a know-it-all face here and am I really slightly pointing my finger?? I think its one of the curses of the the eldest-child-DNA... :)

More wedding surfing.  Mom with her tea...getting sleepy...but hanging on.... (Seriously, how were weddings planned before the internet? :)

The boys LOVED playing Wii. I have many more pictures of the fun -- but most are full of pjs and bed-head. :)

Here is some of my favorite artwork from the season. Noah's turkey said that he was thankful for "my dad; my baby; my jammies; my lovies; my mommy" (I'm sure he just ran out of feathers for Miles!). Miles' turkey said that he was thankful for "pop and gram because they have lots of toys; my mom and dad because my dad wrestles with me and my mom snuggles with me; and my brothers Noah and Griffin. I am thankful for Noah because I play with him and I am thankful for Griffin because he hugs me." Griffin didn't have anything listed on his turkey but I'm sure he'll be full of lists next Thanksgiving. This year we ate up his multi-colored hand imprint modified to be a turkey. Its the cutest.

Busy Browns

I'm not sure what happened, but life as has gotten insanely busy. Mike's been in Boston all week; I've been to Miles' school several times to volunteer; we've had play dates, after-school activities, Miles' school holiday program; my car battery died for 20 hours (my amazing friend Shawne figured out the jumper cables and saved the day -- which unfortunately didn't save me from an hour+ wait in the dealership with 2 kiddos this morning...just to learn that the battery is fine now, but will probably die again...but they can't replace it under the warranty unless its currently not working), and I got my first mammogram (I know, too much information -- but, dude, it was a big deal and thankfully much easier than I thought it was going to be).

Tomorrow I head off for on an annual dinner club weekend in the mountains. I cannot wait. I long for time with these precious girlfriends and soak up every moment that I get with them. Heading back on Sunday to help host a wedding shower for Dana. Can't wait to celebrate her hitching up with Brad! Love them both!

Who knows how long it will be until I begin to blog about Thanksgiving and everything else I'm snapping pictures of?! Until then.....

Here is one of the pictures that Hope Bray took of our family. Will post more next week.

Stay tuned to hear about our first visit with Lindsey and Jason's dog Nacho....

Stay tuned to see what Mike thought was so funny....

Stay tuned to hear about my crazy (I-love-him-so) brother-in-law....

Stay tuned for more i-n-s-a-n-e cuteness from Miles' 1st grade program (bottom row, red shirt). Thanks for joining us tonight, Aunt Dana!

Stay tuned to see how we're getting into the spirit for Christmas!

Ho! Ho! Ho!  From our busy house to yours!

I ♥ Faces: Tooshies

No faces this week -- just the buns.  :)  Check out more super cute tooshies at iheartfaces.com!

A Few More Favorites from the Weekend

LOVE these kiddos!!

Brown/Bailey Weekend

We had a great weekend with Mike's parents, his sister, Shannon, and our niece, Mason.  I couldn't ask for better in-laws or a better bonus sister.  My only wish is that we all lived in the same town so that we could spend much more time together.  Already counting the days until we'll be together again in December.  Here are a few of our weekend activities: 

Creating Sidewalk Galleries

Making Wishes

Playing with Grandma Peggy -- checking out moss, making "soup" out of acorns, leaves and rocks (yum!)

Awesome Cousin Time (super fun Aunt Shannon, too!)

Experimenting with Wax Lips and Candy Treats from Grandma (Noah and Mason got a kick out of it.  Check out his face for confirmation that Miles opted out.  Cracks me up that Mason's lips are upside down.)

Lots of Wedding Talk! Dana asked the kids to take part in the wedding ceremony. Miles is still processing the request; Noah was thrilled, especially after learning that it might come with a gift of sorts. Mason immediately envisioned herself in her fancy red dress (I have an adorable vision of the boys in black chuck taylors with their wedding gear). Precious, so very special, and so thoughtful of Dana & Brad. (As a side-note, Dana and I cracked up when she arrived wearing her new favorite sweater, which is also my new favorite sweater. Linds -- plan on a shopping trip, pronto.)

Watching Hilarious Videos. The kids checked out one of Shannon & Mason's favorite dance videos on youtube and Miles' dance video posted on our blog. Insanely hilarious.

Making Christmas Lists (I'm not sure that anything was left uncircled)

Hanging with Grandpa Bob.  Somehow this is the only picture I took of Mike's dad.  The funny part is that after I took it, Griffin asked to see it (on the screen of my camera).  I said, "who's that?"  He said, "that's bob!"  Way to skip all formalities, my friend.  Too funny.

You can see more pictures from the weekend on my flkr page.

Miles' Big Week

We had a busy week last week.  Miles' life, in particular, was full of highlights.

Highlight #1: Down Another Tooth!

I joined Miles for his school's thanksgiving feast and within moments of sitting down, he pulled out one of his top teeth (it had been loose). To describe him as "excited" would be an understatement. Later that afternoon, he was still feeling quite silly when I asked him to show-off his new grill. Isn't the hole h-u-g-e?

Highlight #2: Earned a Yellow/White Belt!

Miles has been l-o-v-i-n-g karate. Last Thursday was his first 'test day' and he passed, earning himself a belt with a yellow & white stripe. Mike was on location to watch him and cheer him on (very cool that they now have martial arts in common). When they got home, Miles tore into the house, stoked about this win -- and excited to pass on his white belt to Noah. Noah immediately suited up and whipped up his own moves.

Highlight #3: Magician Hats

Who knew this would be as much of a thrill as it was. We made the hats (idea from your fun craft book, Dana!) and the boys l-o-v-e-d them. I can't begin to tell you how many "do you think I can pull a rabbit out of my hat" tricks I applauded.

Highlight #4: Book Character Day

Need I say more?

(Griffin was sick with croup/stridor last week and spent lots of time sleeping; hence the lack of face time in this post)

I ♥ Faces: Sun Flare

I love sun flare in pictures.  Most of mine show up in pictures without people, so my pickings were slim this week (and its too rainy in Charlotte to practice with some new ones).  Not sure if this photo of Miles even counts as sun flare, but it makes me smile, so I'm going with it.  :) 


Definitely check out more sunshiny entries at iheartfaces.com!