Oklahoma Christmas/Blakes 1st Christmas

Since we were going to be out of town for Christmas this year, we called in a favor and had Santa visit us early so we wouldn't have to travel with presents.

Christmas Eve jammies:



Opening presents "Christmas" morning:









Presents from G&G Brown:





Santa did not disappoint:

Blake was not into the wrapping paper at all, but he could not get enough of climbing on boxes!








Here's Kate in her Christmas dress from Grandma Brown:





Blake started getting sick that morning and by the time church rolled around he was pretty miserable, so he and I stayed home.



Ah-CHOO!

Give Thanks!

We are so happy to finally have family living by us, and by that I mean a 6 hour drive, but believe me, that feels close to us! This year for Thanksgiving, we got to join my parents and little brother Mark at my brother Matt's house for Thanksgiving. We had an awesome time! The kids all had a blast together, the guys enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy (almost nightly) and the girls got to shop! And all that was in addition to the amazing feast we had!



Grandma, of course, came bearing gifts:







Grandma also had a fun, edible craft for the girls to make, turkey cookies!





I don't know if the girls had more fun making or eating them!



Aunt Lisa helped the girls make super cute/fun paper bag "indian" vests!





Blake in his Thanksgiving garb...never mind the huge wet spot, he was having so much fun, he must have forgot to tell me to change his diaper!



Lisa did an AWESOME job on the turkey!!! Matt, carving the "roast beast"



The three Turkey Princesses enjoying their meal!



Thanks Matt and Lisa for being amazing hosts!

Sleeping Beauties

Bye Bye Binky!

We FINALLY got Kate to give up her pacifier! I was really worried about getting rid of it because she absolutely loved that thing...seriously, she would pet it with the back of her hand while she sucked on it.



To be quite honest, I was a little sad to get rid of it, it felt like the last part of her "babyhood" was gone! We just told her that her paci went bye bye and she was a big girl now, and that the paci went to the little babies who needed it. We got her a new stuffed pony to snuggle at night and named her Paci the Pony. She had a rough few days, but I was surprised at how well/quickly she adjusted! Here she is with her prize for going without it for a whole week.

Happy Baby

Blake and his favorite stuffed animal!

Tricky Treat

"Tricky Treat" soon became Kate's favorite phrase on Halloween night. We carved our pumpkins, and our cautious Kate surprisingly dug right in!



"Kate" went with the traditional look for her pumpkin, and Jason decided to try his hand at pumpkin sculpting again this year, and made an awesome spooky tree!



My attempt to make Blake a basketball costume (on halloween day) failed MISERABLY! I knew just by looking at my "finished" product that it wouldn't work, but decided to try it on him anyway just so I could feel like I had accomplished something...and then quickly regretted that decision as he almost DIED when the costume swallowed him up and we couldn't get it off of him! Luckily, my aunt had sent us a lion costume she had used previously and it fit Blake perfectly!



We capped off the night by gettin' down at our ward's Halloween Party/Trunk or Treat where:

~Blake scarfed down a whole hot dog bun~



~Kate thoroughly enjoyed her cotton candy~





~We played lots of fun games~
{Kate's favorite was the car races}



~And finally got to the best part, Trick or Treating!~
{Kate's score}

My Halloweenies!

Grandma Brown sent us an AMAZING Halloween package, full of all sorts of fun treats, toys, books, clothes and decor for Halloween, here are SOME of the kiddos duds she sent!









Thanks Mom, for all the Halloween Cheer!

The Wheel Mobile!

The Wheel of Fortune Wheel Mobile came to OKC and we (being fans) decided to go check it out!



Although we weren't one of the lucky ones who got their names drawn to go on stage and audition...



we did get an amazing hamburger and this sweet prize that one of the winning contestants so graciously gave to Kate!



Well, Kate thought it was sweet anyway!

My Sister Pretty Much Rocks!

Check out her HALLOWEEN DECOR! I love it!!!

Six Months Already!

Blake turned 6 months old this month! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! He is growing and changing overnight it seems! He is rolling all over the place, got his first tooth on September 22 and his second just came in today! He sits up pretty well now, unless he sees something he wants, then he dives for it! He started pulling himself forward on his tummy on September 24th and I can tell he is just so ready to go! It's going to take a while for me to get used to such a busy baby! He LOVES food, he eats two whole containers of baby food (the bigger ones) PLUS a bowl of oatmeal at dinner almost every night! He has yet to meet a food he doesn't like (besides meat, but I can't blame him, that stuff is stinky)! He is super ticklish, especially his feet and his back. He loves the vacuum and gets super excited when he sees it and even more excited when I start to vacuum. He also LOVES his blankie, and loves to snuggle it and rub it against his face when he's falling asleep. He is a great sleeper, a welcome change for me! He usually sleeps about 9 hours, eats a little and goes back down for another 2-3. He has changed so much in this last week, it's crazy! He used to cry 90% of the time unless he was being held, but he is a much happier camper these days and can find lots to entertain himself with! He loves to watch Kate and laughs at her often, he has already started to "tease" her. We love his contagious laugh and his sweet smile!

Pure Deliciousness!

While shopping for some groceries the other day, I stumbled across these bad boys...

It's hard to tell from the picture, but they were monsterous. I put a normal sized one next to them so you could see the difference, but the picture does not do it justice..

They were practically begging to be dipped in caramel...inspired by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory apples, I made these...


-Caramel, dipped in white chocolate, rolled in graham cracker crumbs and then drizzled with more white chocolate (for Jason)
-Caramel, dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles (that one was Kate's)
-Caramel, rolled in pecans, and then drenched in white and milk chocolate (mine of course).

They were so amazingly delicious, not only because of all the ooey gooey goodness on the outside, but the apples themselves were SOOOOO good!!!

Bathtime Buddies