Baby Hannah

My friend, Lauren, from ISU had her second child on January 22nd! Last night I went to the hospital to meet the new baby girl, Hannah Lauren. She is soooo adorable and snugly:) Holding a new baby always makes ME want another baby! I even got to give her a bottle while I was there! It was great. I got my new baby fix for a while.

Crazy times in the Brown household

Payton wearing his new Elmo slippers from Gaia

Brushing teeth before bed

Posing for the camera

Ready for a nap

Sami - I feel like I don't post enough pics of him

Payton tormenting Sami

Payton coloring

I love this picture! What a perfect smile:)

I apologize for not posting the last couple of weeks but we have been so busy since returning from Florida and getting back to work. Graham started student teaching on the 14th and has been loving it. He actually starts teaching tomorrow so I am sure he is a little nervous. It is so nice having him around after work, especially since he has been able to help with picking Payton up from daycare. The only drawback is that he works every weekend now. I have picked up a tutoring job twice a week to earn a bit more cash since we are down to ONE salary so that takes up some of my time. I was also asked to be on the All Day Kindergarten district committee which was an honor to be chosen to be on it but a big time commitment. We have a meeting or we are expected to work on our own time every week but it is worth it. It is so much fun helping to develop an all day kindergarten program from scratch. It should be a fun and interesting year next year.

Payton started his music class this week, which meets on Mondays for about an hour. He loves it!! We did a short 3 week session in the summer and he took a bit to warm up to it and by that time it was over so this session is 10 weeks and he jumped right in on the first day. The teacher couldn't believe it and kept saying how good Payton was doing. It was a proud "mommy moment":)

I posted a few random pictures since I haven't had much time to take many.

Florida...Continued

Here are some more pictures of our trip to Florida. My friend, Pam and her boyfriend were in Tampa for the Outback Bowl game so we were able to get together with them one night for dinner and drinks. It is so much fun to see people from home when you are on vacation:) Thanks Pam for going out with us!

Me and Pam at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill

Payton at the beach

Dolphin show at the Aquarium

Family picture with the Hawaiian turtle at the Aquarium

Gaia and Grandpa Al with Payton outside of the Aquarium

Graham, Grandpa Al and Payton at the Botanical Gardens

Payton in a wheelbarrow

Graham and Payton on an old train car

Christmas in Florida

Payton on the plane Jumping in the pool
Grandpa Al with Payton

Looking for fish

Testing out the waters with Daddy

Payton, Graham and Grandpa Al getting ready to go sailing

Coming back from a short sailing ride

Making sand castles

This year we spent our Christmas break in Florida with Graham's family. We were glad to get out of the cold Chicago weather and spend some days on the beach in the sun. We got lucky with the weather, as the first week it was in the high 70's-low 80's most of the time. On New Year's Day, a cold front came in and in the mornings it felt like we were back in Chicago, reaching a low of 32 degrees one morning! Payton did awesome on the plane! He loved standing in between us and watching movies. The flight attendants were so great to him, bringing him juice and pretzels whenever they came by.

We had a great time in Florida and it was so much fun to watch Payton experience the beach for the first time! He loved picking the sand up and throwing it in the Gulf. He could run in and out of the water for hours!! Payton has NO fear at all of the water, which is good and bad at times. If you weren't watching he would just jump in the pool or lower himself in without assistance! I guess the swim lessons were good in a way:)

When we weren't at the beach, we spent the days at a turtle park, eating ice cream, at the aquarium, at the botanical gardens or just out for a run. It was a great way to spend our vacation time and we appreciate the wonderful hospitality from Graham's family. We were treated like royalty!!

Christmas Morning

Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning Realizing there are presents

Thomas the Train table Playing with his new Thomas table

Opeing his new potty seat

Graham, Payton and I spent Christmas morning as a family. It was so much fun this year with Payton being older and understanding gifts, somewhat! Santa brought him a Thomas the Train table with the whole railway tracks and everything (thanks to our friends for handing that down to us:) and a basketball hoop! Payton got a few things from Mom and Dad too like a potty seat, a giant stuffed alligator, coloring books, a soccer ball and other odds and ends. He had a hard time diverting his attention away from the train table in order to see what else he got for Christmas! We left the house around 10:30 to head to the airport. We spent Christmas night through January 4th in Tampa, Florida with Graham's parents and Grandma. I will post more on our Florida trip soon but we had a blast!

Christmas Eve

Payton opening his suitcase from Nana & Papa Payton in his new chef hat from Aunt Jen & Uncle Tom
Payton playing with Jolie's Christmas present:)

Emmett riding his new rocking horse

I was trying to get a good picture of the three cousins...they were acting a bit goofy!

On Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house, along with my sister and her family. We had yummy prime rib and VERY good cookies for desert. Jolie had a great time opening her gifts, as well as Payton's, since he was too consumed with Jolie's doll crib she got from my parents to open any of his own gifts!! He loved putting the babies and his doggie in the crib and then taking them out again. You would have thought we were torturing him when we pulled him away from the crib in order to open gifts. It was a great time anyways and Payton got some really nice gifts from my parents. He now loves his new table and chairs from my parents and spent the entire night coloring at his new table:)

Christmas with the Chudzick's

Megan reading to Payton

Laura reading to Payton

The Chudzick Family Emma

Graham reading a story to the kids

We celebrated Christmas early with Alyssa, Andy and Emma. We had brunch and just relaxed and hung out. Payton loved opening his presents, and of course asking for more:) Emma is getting so big and Payton just loved kissing her or tickling her. There are also a few pictures of my friends Laura and Megan from when they came to visit just before Christmas! Poor Laura, Payton made her read the same book over and over and over!