Mom and Dad are visiting and so far it has been so nice.  Just to have someone here to help pick up the slack is nice.  Charlotte has been doing this new thing where she gets two little purses and puts one on each arm.  Then she gets the stroller and puts her baby or sheepy into it and tells me bye-bye and walks away.  It is so cute and she is so proud of herself.  Ellie got new glasses today.  They are so cute.  I have not taken any pictures yet but I will soon and post them.  Here is a conversation I had with Jackson.  Let me set it up for you.  Jackson wanted to know if he could say the word fart.  I said no and he said that everyone says it.  And then:

J-We can only say bad words if our mom's and dad's are not there.
M-Uh, no!  Just because Mommy and Daddy can't hear it doesn't mean that you can say it.  Did you know that God can hear and see everything you say and do? 
J-Yeah, that is because God has big fat ears!

I just started laughing.  In his immature and naive six year old way that is how he could rationalize it.  I love that boy.

Oh and a cool thing happened that I will post on Day 1 of the 30 days of giveaways.

*the blue dress was made for me by my great grandmother when I was 2.

End of the Month; Beginning of Something Awesome

October has been a whirl-wind of school (Jackson, Troy and I), baseball, ballet, church and, all things that go with being a mother of a family of 5.  I love it!  I would not trade it for anything.  But alas we are at the end of the month.  My parents are coming in today and will be here until Saturday.  Saturday will bring Halloween and my son is just beside himself with excitement.  He has been counting down the days for 21 days now.  Whatever!  I am over Halloween but am willing to endure 30 minutes of it for trick or treats.  But I digress.  As we end the month I have realized that I have been stagnant in my spiritual walk.  I have had plans of doing a Bible study on my own and I am now on week 10 of my six week study!  I had planned on having family devotions every Friday night and so far since we have started we have had one.  I am exhausted by the time I get to church for WAM on Wednesdays and I don't put all into teaching these precious children how to worship.  By Sunday, I am so tired of being at church it takes me a while to get into anything.  So today I was going through a blog I found through Misty, it is written by a Christian and her main goal is to give, love others and teach them the same.  So she is having a 30 Day Giving Challenge in November.  I don't know who all is reading my blog, I did just start it.  But I plan on accepting this challenge and growing my walk with the Lord.  I don't expect anything except a renewed closeness with Him.  In the past 7 1/2 years Troy and I have been overwhelmed with the unsolicited generosity to us by those we love.  Even by some that we didn't know at the time.  I don't know what I am going to give or whom I am going to give it to.  We will have to see where the Lord prompts!

Beautiful Weather

This weekend was absolutely beautiful.  Way too nice to spend it inside.  Friday we had our class social and went to dinner.  It was Mexican food and oh so good.  Saturday, much to my surprise, Troy did not have to work so we spent the day together.  After I went to Kroger and prepped all of our meals for the next two weeks.  We went to the park with my neighbor Lindy and had a picnic.  Today we went to church and then Ellie and I watched Nim's Island together.  It was nice to spend time with her.  It has been a nice laid back weekend.  I love days like these!

The Great Mom Curse.....

Today Jackson had a baseball game. Let me start out by saying that he has been struggling recently with a bad attitude towards things that either he can't do or just doesn't want to do. He lays his head on his desk at school and often cries when he doesn't understand something, or if he just doesn't want to do it. And at home he throws a tantrum that any 2 year old would be proud of. So with the help of Dr. Dobson, we have been implementing consequences for this behavior. So at his game on Monday when the coach told him he would be in the outfield for that inning he decided he didn't want to and went back into the dug out refusing to go on the field! That is not going to fly in the Brown house! So today he had to apologize to Coach. (The coach had already forgotten the incident.) So anyway, every game the kid who did the best gets the game ball. Jackson has not received it yet (they all get one). I had to leave the game early because Charlotte wanted nothing to do with the ball fields tonight. He had a great game and got the game ball!!!! The last 3 seasons he has played every time he has received it I have not been there! I am a curse! You know how baseball is so superstitious. So I guess I should try to miss at least one game a season so that he can get it! Oh well he was so proud and so excited. Quietly I am thanking the Lord that this happened especially after he humbled himself and apologized to the coach. What a great teaching moment! God is good!

Today was not exciting at all. It was long and I was exhausted for most of it. The only real thing to report is a conversation I had with Ellie. She was watching Bambi 2. She came into my room with tears rolling down her face and the saddest look I had ever seen...

Mom-What is wrong Ellie?
E-Bambi died!
Mom- What? No honey. He didn't die you have to keep watching it will be ok.
E- No I saw him! The rocks fell on him.

I convinced her to run back to the game room with me just in time to see him frolicking with his friends. Oh Bambi! I was probably her age when I was so devastated by the death of Bambi's mother. Ellie has such a tender little heart. I love that about her!

Now that I think about it I had tons of cuddle time with both my girls today and you can't beat that! Even if I do have a raging headache!

Today I had a parent-teacher conference with Jackson's teacher. It was only supposed to take 20 minutes max. It ended up being almost an hour. He is really struggling with all aspects of school, which is heart breaking for me. He is such a smart kid, something is just not clicking. We broached the subject of possible learning disabilites like dyslexia but really at this age it is too hard to tell. He appears to be an auditory learner but putting pen to paper is hard for him. Ha! That is all that school is. So anyway, I am excited that he has improved even since the beginning of the year. I am also glad that his teacher loves him and knows that he is a good kid. We are just going to have to work hard and figure out what is best for him. We will figure it out and he will do well I am sure of that! "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".

It so beautiful out today that it is hard to stay inside. If Charlotte did not need a nap we would be at a park taking in the fresh air! Here are some pics of the big kids enjoying the weather.


I'm gonna getcha!
In front of Mr A.V.'s tree.
My sweet sweet Ellie T!

Christmas in October

We are finally getting the cooler weather! All the windows in the house are open and it is 74 degrees in side. Not bad I would say. The cool fresh air gives me a certain kind of energy. It always makes me want to clean. Maybe it is because when I was little I remember my mom opening the windows on days like this and then having us clean. All I know is that I love to get things done when the weather is like this. So I tackled the girls closet today. Lord help me! It is so overwhelming with all that stuff! Although there is not as much stuff in there as before there is still a whole lot! I needed to get out the stuff that is too small for Charlotte so that I could give it to the neighbor. And then I had to get the stuff too small for Ellie put away for Char. There are also a ton of shoes! Oh the shoes! But I did get them organized and will need to find a better way to store them. So in this whole process I found a bag, a very large, very tightly packed bag of clothes. All from Sherry, all 12 months, all winter! AHHHHHH!!!!!! I have been racking my brain trying to figure out why I couldn't find any clothes from her in that size and season. That is why I went shopping yesterday! Oh well, of course there are really cute clothes and I am not regretting what I did get at the sale. It is just a little frustrating that it was there the whole time. I know what happened. When she gave them to me she said they were winter and it was probably summer so I just put them away without going through them because as I said before it is overwhelming! So I will just think of this as Christmas in October!

Busy Day and Monsters

Today I went to a city wide consignment shop called "Just Between Friends". I went with Michelle and we took all of our "little's". It was fun. There were great buys for Charlotte. I got 9 full outfits (Charlotte), an Anakin Skywalker costume (Jackson, looks new!), a polo for J possibly for family pictures, and a Polly Pocket tree house thingy for Ellie all for the grand total of $48! I could not believe what a great deal I got! Michelle did well too. We went to another little shop off of Memorial and it was good too a little spendy but nothing we couldn't handle! Most of the clothing was in great shape. I got 2 new leotards and a skirt for Ellie's ballet. She was so excited because one was purple! We then went to the best place ever...Olive Garden! It was so good and such a nice treat! I know it is ridiculous to get excited over such a silly place but it hit the spot and I was glad we went.

It is so beautiful out today that I opened windows and tackled my kids bathroom when we got home. It looks and smells so much better! The windows do not have screens and Jackson just asked for permission to climb out. What the hay! I don't really care, it's fun and we certainly do not get to do it every day.

So funny little story and conversation with Jackson today....
E-Mom, Jackson fighted that monster in his bedroom and had to feed him so he would go away.
Me-What?
E-He did, ask him!
Me-What is she talking about Jackson?
J-There was a monster in my room and I had to fight him and I punched him so hard in the face he went to outer space. (pantomiming the entire scenario!)
Me-Oh, this was your dream last night?
J-No, this really happened. I was very quiet so that you would not wake up. You were snoring in your bed.

I am sure he really did fight a monster! He has been struggling with fear lately and I told him last night that all he had to do was to tell the scary things to go away and to ask Jesus to help him. He was up late last night, who knows what went on in there!

First Post

So I have a blog on another site. Everyone else seems to like this one so here we go! I hope to keep track of great pictures and fun things that happen in our family. The newest thing right now is that Ellie is getting so much better with her speech. She used to say that her favorite color was "pupur". It is now "purple". It is a sad day when your baby stops talking like one! So sad....