The Brown Bunch

We celebrated a huge milestone in our family this year with Nanny Shewbert's 100 th birthday. We are so blessed to have her in our family and so thankful that she has lived such a long and special life. As I've shared before, Nanny is one of my favorite people and Jake loves her just as much as I do. We had a reception for Nanny and her little sister, Anna Lee (who celebrated birthday #95 in December) at Mt. Yonah Baptist. Many friends and family came by to see Nanny and wish her a happy birthday. Of course I was busy taking pictures, but when I got home and looked through them, most were of my kids. What can I say? I'm a little partial to those two! Caco playing with Clarie Anna Lee (left) and Nanny Shewbert visiting with guests The excitement was just too much for Claire Kelsey and Jake Dede and Jake (Obviously, Jake made the rounds.) Allyson and Dede with Nanny Shewbert The whole family... or most of us anyway. Where's Jake?

We were so lucky this year to be able to spend an entire weekend for Christmas with the whole Brown clan. Nana, Papa, Chris and Julie with their kids, and the four of us spent an entire weekend fellowshipping , eating, and playing together. With all of our busy schedules, this is very rare so it was wonderful to be able to enjoy each other. The kids had a blast playing with each other and with all of their new toys! Jason, Jake, Claire, and I got to sleep in Nana & Papa's camper for the weekend. It was lots of fun to have our little space and it was our first "camping" experience as a family. I told Jason that we need to buy a camper for our family, but I'm not seeing that in our future anytime soon. Well at least we can go visit Nana and Papa every time we feel the need to go camping. =) Aunt Julie helped Jake open his presents Jake finally got the hang of opening presents and was ready to dig in. Cole and Uncle Chris Presents took a toll on Claire and she wa...

The kids dressed out for the last regular game of our season. While we're not expecting a favorable turnout, we still have fun dressing the kids up to cheer on the Dawgs ! Maybe Santa will deliver an early Christmas present in the form of a win....

Thanksgiving morning is one of my favorite mornings of the year. That's because of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. I've always loved watching the parade and I want the kids to enjoy it with me. To me, it symbolizes the beginning of the holiday season. This year, I watched it with my two favorite turkeys. Claire was just content to sit and watch and Jake was excited to see all of his Sesame Street friends, especially Elmo. After the parade, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch with the Adams side of the family. We have so much to be thankful for! Claire woke me up early so she and I enjoyed some cuddling before the rest of the house woke up. Jake and Claire stayed in their jammies to watch the parade. Notice that they couldn't take their eyes off of the TV for the picture. Later on we changed into our turkey gear for the big feast. I loved this picture! Neither one of them would look at the camera, but Claire made sure to stick up her big toe! Claire was so happy after ea...

Thanksgiving Eve is always spent with the Harper side of the family. We have a new, younger generation of Harpers coming up so every get-together is spent eating yummy food, enjoying lots of fellowship with family that we don't get to see enough, and watching the babies play. We are already looking forward to a fun Christmas with many more to come. This was our first year without Pop Charlie. While we were all missing Pop, the babies were a happy distraction. I'm sure you'll be able to tell how much fun they are just from these pictures. Linda fixed Claire's hair to look like Pebbles. Claire with Nanny Nette and Paco Jake doesn't eat anything, but Minnie caught him sneaking rolls off of the plate when no one was looking. Jake and Devin giving love Jake and Devin had a blast wrestling on the couch. Jake and Devin needed to rest after playing so hard. Mamew made a special stocking for Claire. This is a family tradition. We ALL have them and they were handmade ...

Jason had to work for Halloween this year so I loaded the kids up for the weekend and headed up to the mountains. With Nanny Nette and Paco there, I knew that the kids would have a blast. I also wanted them to get to spend some time with the rest of our family. For the entire month of October, we worked on Jake saying, "Trick or Treat." But in his stubborn way, Jake is only going to do and say what he wants to do and say. So instead of "Trick or Treat," Jake said, "Happy Boo!" Anything that comes out of his mouth is precious so we decided to run with that. Apparently the rest of the family thought that it was precious too because he came home with lots of loot. I've never denied the fact that he is spoiled rotten! Claire's costume is one that I bought when I was pregnant with Jake and didn't yet know that he was a boy. I knew that I would want a ladybug someday and the price was too good to pass up. But, Jake ended up being a boy and ...

I know it's been a while since I last blogged. Life with a full time job and two kids under the age of two can be pretty hectic, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. We celebrated this weekend with Claire's baby dedication. Just like her big brother (a little over a year ago) Claire was dedicated at Palmetto Baptist Church by Dr. Jimmy Orr. It's very special to me that both of my kids were dedicated in the same church and by the same man that married Jason and me. Nana Cathy helped me get her dressed. After putting on her slip, dress, special big bow, lacy socks, lacy shoes, bangle bracelet, and silver ring, we were both exhausted. Nana says that she probably won't be fixed up this much again until her wedding day. Nana doesn't know that I have big plans to dress her up like this for EVERYTHING! Oh the joys of being a girl... Anyway, here are several pictures from Claire's day. She was absolutely beautiful! The pictures don't do her justice! Paco and N...