Friday the 13th...not so bad!

The last day of my vacation, and we actually just rest today...at least the kids are! It is another rainy day, Owen is sleeping and Claire is on her third movie of her movie marathon. I, on the other hand, am just reading my favorite blogs rather than preparing for the dreaded neighborhood garage sale tomorrow =(. I think I have walked up and down the stairs 20 times hauling crates and more crates of "gently used" children's clothing. As well as all the baby accessories that I can find (bouncy seats, walkers, toys, etc). Now before all of the family stresses, NO, we have not decided not to have another baby, I am just so tired of looking at the same stuff for almost 5 years!! When baby Brown #3 comes in late 2009 or early 2010 (that seems so far away...at least that is what I like to think), we will be ready for new stuff.

Since I am just rambling, procrastinating writing $2 on itty bitty tags over and over again, below is a picture of Claire vegging out on the couch watching Charlotte's Web. Her hair looks like I just crimped it (you remember the Crimper, don't you) from her braided pig tails yesterday...she thinks it is gorgeuos and I do too!! Have a great weekend!!

Yes, she is still in her pj's!

Nicole bought Cooper a new collar..."Paw and cross-bones" =)

For the birds...

Day 4 of vacation - THE ZOO!! My Dad and Step-Mom, G-pa and Brandi, asked to take the kids to the Tulsa Zoo. So we loaded up and drove over to Tulsa (2 hours). Tara and Nicole came along too. It was insanely hot, but the zoo was nice. We saw quite a few animals and the kids loved it! Claire loves animals, her favorite was the monkeys...Owen had a good time, his favorite was the Animal Sipper cup of pink lemonade G-pa bought him =). I will spare you of all the pictures of animals you can barely see and the view of a crooked part for pigtails, but we did get some cute pictures. The BEST part was the FeatherFest exhibit! They took you in a greenhouse type place, full of TONS of little parrots. You could buy little sticks with bird feed on them and the birds would come sit on the stick...or you and eat the feed. I have not laughed so hard in a long time!! Claire really enjoyed it, but was jumpy. Every time one would land on her, she would be okay for a minute, until another bird decided to join hers then she would drop it and take off running!! So funny!! But nothing was funnier than Owen's reaction. We had to leave the stroller at the door, so he was free to run. His first reaction was terror, he was crying so hard when I was holding him and a bird landed on my stick. Later, he was not as terrified, but he would just repeat "No, No, No, No..." if we would bring one to him. The pictures of him (and video) below will give you the full effect!!

Before you can enjoy the many pictures...yes, I have another BRILLIANT Claire Isabella quote, #5!!

After the zoo, we drove back in to Tulsa and went to have dinner at Outback. Claire was sitting with Brandi.

Brandi starts rocking Claire back and forth (holding on to her because she was cold).
Brandi: "Claire do you like to rock?"
Claire: "Well, I need my guitar!"

Please enjoy all of our wonderful zoo pictures. Please forgive any bad hair, I cannot describe how terribly hot it was, we were miserable!!

Claire looking at monkeys...

Owen looking at monkeys...

This MeerKat was so cute...

"This cup is awesome!"

My favorite, the penguins!!

Elephants...

FREE!!! In the bird place, "Where am I?"
Claire jumpy at first!She goes in for one...
Then it flies, she screams and jumps!!
Still jumping =)...
O and I go in for one, I have to admit, I was not really digging the whole bird thing...watch his face through out these pictures...HILARIOUS!!

Brave Claire goes back for more...

This my FAVORITE picture of the day, you can just see the worry in his eyes as he looks at the birds above him, but still a strong hold on that Animal Sipper cup =)...priceless!!

Claire was doing really well by the end!

Owen: "No, No, No!"

Claire with G-pa and Brandi...

G-pa trying to get Owen to enjoy it...not happening.
Video of Owen's reaction...

Vacation is almost over, but we had a great week!! I am so blessed to have such adorable, sweet children!!!

O got a tan!!

Day 2 of vacation!! We spent the day swimming in our back yard in the new kiddie pool I bought the kids (after 2 trips to WalMart and one pool that had me coming up with some very creative words for bad ones, for example: shhhheeeez louisee). Claire and Owen could not have been any happier if we had huge in ground pool, so the day was great!! One surprising thing, OWEN GOT HIM SOME TAN LINES!! As yall know he has very fair skin, but after 3 hours in the sun, he has the cutest tan line above his booty (I took pictures, but Shane would not let me put them out here =)). He is even more of a handsome stud now!! After we spend a week in Gulf Shores in July, he will be brown as a biscuit like Claire (that is a Becky Brown term =)).

Before we get to the pictures of the day...I have to fill you in on some great quotes from Claire...and now Owen.

Owen - WHERE DID MY BABY GO??!! - Owen did not start consecutively sleeping through the night until he was about 18mos old (I know, it was TOUGH). He has been doing great, but the last couple nights he has been waking up. Now, also lately, Owen has started talking up a storm and is developing quite the personality. So, last night he was crying about 1am. I was hoping (and I know Shane was too, you can tell when they are pretending to sleep, you know what I am talking about) he would just fuss and go back to sleep. Well after a few minutes, the crying turned to screaming, and just as soon as he started screaming, he just started yelling "MAMA". That was a first and a surprise to me, so of course, I leaped up and went upstairs to his room. I open his door, with the usual plan of holding him for a minute, consoling him back to sleep...all he needed was a hug from his Mama and he would go back to sleep (Either me or Daddy, this is literally a process down to science in our house)...

Well I open the door and Owen says "No, night night, No Mama!!"
I was shocked, he was not my little baby anymore. He would not stay in his room, wanted to go downstairs and needed a drink. After a drink and watching some food network (always puts him to sleep), I was in bed by 2. Oh the night life of a Mom!

Brilliant Quotes from Claire Isabella 2-4...

#2 - She and Owen are swimming in the pool, she is just as happy as can be and keeps on telling me so. She is singing a song from one of her Playhouse Disney shows "It's a Perfect Day". Owen gets out and goes to play ball for a bit and she scoots over in the pool close to edge where I am laying out in a chair.

Claire : "This is great, just us girls, laying out in the pool".
Mama: "Uh-huh"
Claire: "Owen is playing over there, we can just talk"
Mama: "Yep, we can."
Claire: "So Mama, tell me about when you got married to Dad, what kind of dress did you wear? Necklace? Bracelet?"

That is some great girl talk. It turned into a long conversation all about my wedding dress...she is such a big girl!

#3 - Tara and Nicole come over later in the afternoon to lay out and hang with the kids. We were thinking about going to a dinner tonight, but we needed a sitter to watch the kids. So I went to call Nana and Papa (Keith and Becky) and Claire continued her conversation with the girls...

Nicole: "Claire you might stay with your Nana and Papa tonight!"
Claire: "Yea, they are my favorites!!"
Nicole: "They are your favorites? How about Nonna and Poppy?"
Claire: "Yes, they are too!"
Nicole: "Nina and Papa?"
Claire: "Yes"
Nicole: "Well, how about me?"
Claire: "Well...I like Tara today, but you can be favorite tomorrow??!"

#4 - All of us sitting at the the dinner table tonight...
Claire: "Mama, do you remember when you told me that Daddy would swim with us tonight?"
Mama: "No..."
Claire: "Yes, in the car after we left Wal-Mart!, You promised!"
Mama: "No, I don't remember Claire" (Shane is eyeing me and I seriously do not remember)
Claire: "Maaammaa, you are so not genius!! I remember...I am the only genius!!"

Enjoy all of the cute pictures from swimming today and a few of the girls and Claire making brownies...

Claire wanted me to take some shots of her in action, jumping in the pool...she was happy with my work =)

Owen likes for me to count to three before he does anything, like a countdown... so he turns to me like this...
Claire was having a blast, this was her favorite picture...

Owen in action too...



And then it was nap time (a day full of swimming will even put Owen in a nap!!)...=)

Making brownies...you think this was a planned picture??=)

I am so glad that I am vacation this week, we are having so much fun!! I just LOVE SUMMER!!

Bubbles and Popsicles

The two favorite things in our house are BUBBLES and POPSICLES! Sunday afternoon the kids played outside and enjoyed their favorites.

Look how much they have grown since Bubble days last year...sweet babies!!

Yep, two blogs in one day...there will be many more this week. I am on vacation, not because we have some glamorous vacation planned, nope...Mom does! Mom and Jake left for Vegas this aftenoon and I took off all week to spend with the kids. We are going to pack in as much swimming and fun outside activities as possible....except today, IT'S POURING!!

Sad Brown chidren =)
I know they are mine, but don't you just want to eat them up!!