Throwback Thursday!

I'm sure my family will love this picture. I'm so cute how could you not?!?! Im pretty sure this is a picture of my family at church when we lived in Ponca City. I'd say I'm probably 6 here. And apparently my family likes to embrace every style trend from the late eighties. Ha ha!

School Pictures & Lemon Verbena

Max is on Spring Break this week, but as usual he is sick with a cough and fever. I know you all are very shocked. I don't know why he catches every bug but I swear I need to figure out a way to boost his immune system. Apparently we need more orange juice in the Brown's house. Or better yet Maybe I should grow an orange tree! To bad Oklahoma red dirt doesn't lend itself to growing them Other than that not much is going on here. Jeff and I are taking a week off from work and I cant even tell you how excited I am! We are having a nice little staycation. We'll get some things that have been forgotten at the house done and some fun outings. But mostly I'm excited because Jeff and I never really spend any time together especially as a family. Because we both work opposite schedules and days off it doesn't make for much face time. We both see Max quite a bit but it will be nice to be all together for a week. Plus Jeff will be able to go to Max's first baseball game, which that starts back up the first week in April. We are also about to start swim lessons again. Wish us luck that Max doesn't drink to much water and throw up in the pool again. I say they should quite making lessons right after dinner so I blame them, ha ha! I noticed that I had not posted Max's new school pictures and his class picture so here they are for your viewing pleasure, and a few miscellaneous pictures from the past 2 weeks.

Last week was Dr Seuss week at school and to top it off they made green eggs and ham. Max loved mixing up the eggs but as you can see he didn't know what to think about them. Max is not a picky eater but eggs are one thing he is very hit or miss about and it's usually a miss.

Who doesn't like a buffalo ride in downtown Oklahoma City? If you are from here or have been here you know that all around downtown it is like a Where's Waldo of buffallo. It's pretty fun spotting them cause they are all different.

Jeff and I went to a friends wedding recently and we made a night of it. Since Aunt Andrea was watching Max we went to dinner too. We never go out to eat on weekends cause Jeff hates crowds. I forgot how much I don't mind waiting when an hour for a table when I don't have a cranky 4 year old with me.

 My favorite boys!

Before I realized how sick Max was we attempted the zoo Monday. Poor kid just didn't feel good.

Snow Day!

I can remember as a kid when you would wake up to a cold morning of snow or ice and find out that school had been canceled. It was the best! Max's first Oklahoma style snow day happened a couple weeks ago. There is an old saying we Okies like that goes, "if you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes." And it really is so true. School was canceled because the roads were considered hazardous and buses couldn't get through. But by 10:30 the roads were fine. It happened to be my day off and I had errands to run. Since Max had no school he got to come too! Overall a fun day and the snow day helped break up my usual day off catch up of grocery shopping and laundry. We let Max actually walk the store since it wasn't busy until he got tired. He ha had a blast in the freezer section! Plus he helped make cookies and the best part was we ate cookies and had hot chocolate while we watched a movie. I don't think I could ask for much more than that.

Since we were already up we cuddled and watched TV while we ate a Pop Tart.

I told you he loved that freezer section!

I have found the BEST cookies recipe ever! I can share if you want, just let me know.

Oh yeah, and we smelled cookies too. Haha!

R-Word PSA

I came across this from the r-word campaign. I've talked about it before and I really think they do great work and I thought this was a really good PSA.

Date Night

I had an awesome date a couple weeks ago! It was with one of the most handsome men I know and he has an adorable laugh. I'm sure that you are thinking Jeff and that's close but no it was Max. My girlfriends Christie and Abby wanted to take the boys to this place called Elevations. It's a cool trampoline park that they had been to before but it made me nervous when they went so we didn't go. So this time when they asked I said sure why not! They had a separate area for kids under 6 so it made me feel a lot better about Max falling and getting run over. We even saw one of his friends from school and I got to meet his mommy and that was nice. The boys loved it and we will have to go again for sure. Since we were already meeting at 7 I figured why not make a night of it and take Max to dinner at Lotsa Noodles. Jeff doesn't like to eat there so it worked out great and it was TASTY too! It was a good break from the norm especially cause it was a school night.

My Valentine

I spent Valentine's day with one of my favorite boys Maxwell! Jeff had to work so it was just the two of us and we had fun. Jeff and I  went out the Saturday before so don't cry for me we got in our time too. I was lucky to be on my days off because I was able to go to the Valentines party at school for Max. We were on juice duty and my sweet husband made sure his boy and his class had cold juice since I was just going to leave it out, so kudos to him for thinking ahead and putting it in the fridge. Jeff and I both made it to the party and Mac was really excited to see us walk in. Max gave out little goodie bags filled with candy, cookies and toys. and Of course Max got to pick out Valentines. I was not at all surprised that he picked Buzz Lightyear. I used to love picking Valentines out as a kid and give them out to all my little friends. I realize Valentines Day gets a bad rap for being "all about gifts" and how "it's a made up holiday from the greeting card companies" but I like it. I like any holiday and this one is no different. Jeff and I don't go big but we do go on a date and I think it's nice cause a date night is just enough fluff. We also got Max a little something. A little gift bag with  different odds and ends and of course a little candy too. Just a little something so he knows how special he is to us. And this year we let Max pick out gifts for Jeff and I and they were perfect just like him. So even though I didn't get to spend it with both of my boys I definitely felt loved and I know they did too.

We gave Max his gift before school to start the day off with a bang! I love this sweater cause it has little professor patches on the elbows but unfortunately we had to change just before we left for school.

Max at his party at school.

Lemon Verbena

Jeff and I's phones finally bit the big one. We had the original Windows phones and while I'm sure they are great phones for some people but the attraction wore off after just over 2 years. So we made the switch to iPhones and I think I can safely say that I am in love! The camera on my old phone was a joke and I now find myself taking pictures of everything now that I have a better camera. so now I have a ton of pictures and videos that don't really pertain to anything on my phone. And the videos have a very Blair Witch Project feel to them but they make me laugh just the same. Here are a few things from the first 2 weeks I have had the phone. It seems I like to take a lot of picture around bed time since Max always seems to be in pajamas, but oh well.

Nothing like buying in bulk at Sam's Club!

Only in Oklahoma can you have sunny skies one day and a snow day they next. I know bad weather was coming so I made sure we made a trip to the park for some sunshine before we got cooped up inside.

Max got quite and went missing while we went and saw my friends Jessica's new digs. This is where I found him, haha! This was also actually taken with my old phone a few weeks ago but it was just to cute to pass up.

Happy New Year!

Because we seem to catch every cootie known to man I was of course sick on New Years but we still were able to bring in the new year right. Max is adorable, of course! But I taught him how to say "Happy New Year" and he ran around the house chanting his version of it all day. Yet again I worked but since most things happen in the evening we were still good to go. Max helped me make a cake when I got home and we got the house ready to party. After dinner we had our ball drop at home and rang in the new year with cake and sparkling cider. No one can tell me the Brown's don't know how to bring in a New Year! It might not be as glamorous as it used to be but it sure the heck is more fun.

 Jeff rig'd up our balloon drop. And since I sprung it on him it turned out pretty good.

Christmas 2012

I have been home sick with a stomach virus for a few days so bear with me. But I wanted to get Christmas blogged before Spring! Since we did so much I'll just post some pictures with descriptions becasue this post is already going to be really long as it is.

I worked on Christmas Eve but as soon as I got off we headed straight for my dad's house for Christmas with my side of the family.

Then we headed home and made sure to put out the reindeer food we made at the Christmas Bash.

And made cookies. I cheated a little and made the dough the night before since I knew we wouldn't have enough time to make them on Christmas Eve.

And since we don't have a chimney we left Santa a key just in case it had been a long night and his magic was a little hit or miss.  (Keep in mind with the key I'm crafty not stupid.)

Time for presents!

The Toy Story Toy was for sure the most loved gift from mommy and daddy.

The last gift was to the whole family it was Christmas jammies for everyone, candy, popcorn and a new Christmas movie to watch.

Movie time before bed!

Then Max left cookies and milk for Santa and headed for bed to read "The Night Before Christmas."

Then Santa came to visit!

He left new beds and a treat for Herman and Maddie.

Max made out pretty big this year too.

The first look. He woke up at 6:30 and we weren't expecting that so we had to put him in our room until my dad could get there. My dad likes to make the rounds to all the local grand kids and we didn't expect Max to get up so early. I think my dad just likes to compare breakfast at each house, ha ha. Of course, we had monkey bread as usual, yum!

We even had a little snow.

We laid around watching Christmas movies all day and playing with our new toys Some of us may have even squeezed in a nap. It was the best day!

We even made time to decorate a gingerbread house too when Granny came over. Max almost ate more than he put on.

And we finished the night off with one of my boys favorite dinners and hot cocoa. This was Max's first time to have hot cocoa and the kid is addicted! My parents came over for dinner too and made it really special. It was nice to have people you care about around you for the holidays. I wish my whole family could have been there but we all have our own kids and traditions. It helps me cherish the time I do get to spend with them. I'm so sad that it is over but I'm already thinking of next year.