Christmas Day 12/25/10

Santa ate both the cookies Julia left for him and only left a few crumbs. I guess he thought they were good. He even had time to leave her a short note!


The look on Julia's face was priceless when she walked in and saw that Santa left her some presents...I guess she was a good girl this year!


Julia was very excited about the kitchen that Santa got her. Don't you just love how excited she looks? She was real happy once she opened it and even spun around with excitement.


Santa even left her a few things for her kitchen. What kitchen would be complete without some food and some bowls?


It didn't take long for Julia to start playing with her kitchen. She used the bowls and put her food away.


After opening her Santa gifts Julia opened a shopping cart from Nana and Papa. A perfect gift that goes along with her kitchen.


Later on Julia opened her American Girl doll from Aunt Kim and Uncle Bradley and her new cousin Alexander too. The night before I asked Julia what she wanted from Christmas and she said a baby and play-doh and she got both.


Julia was quick to change her baby's diaper. She needed some help but before long she'll be able to do it alone.


We finally got dressed and headed over to Grandma's house to show her the kitchen and open more presents. Julia's had a lot of fun making cookies and giving them to everyone.


She really enjoyed making those cookies and using her new kitchen. Don't you just love her apron?


Grandma thought the cookies were a hit so she thought Julia needed brownies too.

Julia helped Elmo wash his hands so they were nice and clean.

After nap we headed to Nana Farrell's house and Julia got a big Elmo puzzle. Julia loves Elmo!

It was a long and busy day and Julia was exhausted and so was Molly. They had no energy left for playing, just sitting and relaxing. We hope you had a great Christmas...we sure did!

Christmas Eve 12/24/10

Christmas Eve was a busy day for the Brown Family. We decided to head up to New York for Christmas this year since it will be our last Christmas up north for quite a while. So we tried visiting with as many family as we could in the little time that we had there. On Christmas Eve morning we went over my daddy's brother's house and I got to play with my cousins. After playing we had donuts for a snack. It was my first time having donuts and my favorite were the chocolate munchkins. Mommy gave me a jelly one but I didn't really like it. Can you believe I ate three chocolate munchkins...they were yummy!

Tyler and Molly liked the donuts too!

Julia with her cousins Tyler, Molly, and Leah. It's amazing but everyone is looking at the camera. Julia really enjoyed playing with her cousins and had lots of fun and now she calls Tyler 'Ty' and Molly 'Mol.'

Of course we had to take a picture in front of the mountain of snow in the circle where mommy grew up. Mommy says she use to go sledding down the hill and play there all the time as a kid. It looks like fun but I don't know if I'd like all that cold weather in New York.

Julia had fun with her other cousin Chelsea. The dog Violet and Elmo wanted to get in the picture too!

Julia was being silly with the wrapping paper and having fun with Grandma while daddy and Uncle Chris were trying to fix the TV.

Julia was a bit exhausted from all the traveling and our busy day. Taking a break and relaxing on daddy's lap.

We had to leave out some cookies for Santa. Julia said he wanted 2 cookies. Of course Julia wanted a cookie too as her snack.

The perfect bedtime story on Christmas Eve...The Night Before Christmas!

I guess Julia was excited about Santa's arrival because she didn't want to go to bed. She was in bed around 8:30 and two hours later she was still awake. Actually she finally fell asleep at 11:00.

I guess I wasn't helping the going to bed situation either by bringing her in our room and taking pictures of her but it was pretty funny. Julia loves her pink sweater and often times she likes to wear it over her pajamas...she's such a silly girl.

Nana and Papa visit

I had tons of fun with my Nana and Papa even though I had a cold. Nana taught me a new song and dance and Papa played shopping with me. It was sad to see them leave but at least I get to see them again real soon.

Christmas Cookies

Last week Julia had her first taste of an anise Christmas cookie and she loved it! It was pretty funny because she's never had a cookie before and the first thing she ate was the frosting with the sprinkles. I'm so glad she liked them because they're my favorite cookies too!

Fall Leaves

It was such a beautiful fall day and our front lawn was covered with leaves. We decided it was time to rake them up and what else but let Julia play in them. She wasn't quite sure at first but it looks to me like she's having fun. We hope you're enjoying the wonderful fall season.

Atlantic Station Christmas Tree Lighting

Last night we went downtown to see the tree lighting at Atlantic Station. Luckily Thomas agreed to go since I already dragged him to the tree lighting at The Avenues right near our house the weekend before. But I made these plans before he told me that he only goes to one tree lighting a year. It must be my lucky year since he's been to two already. The deal wasn't all that bad since he got to check out this pizza place in Atlanta that he's been wanting to go to for over a year. I must say the pizza was awesome, we all loved it. Here's Julia's giving daddy a hug after she got her star wand. Only a $5 donation to Make A Wish Foundation...what a deal and it goes towards a good cause. You'll see the star a bunch in the other pictures...she loved it! Oh, Kim that's the jacket you got for Julia last year at the Gap. It's so cute...we love it!


Daddy and Julia went for a ride on the Steel Mill X-press choo choo train and had lots of fun. Mommy stayed behind and took some photos.


As the train came back you can tell by the look on their faces that they had a blast!


It didn't take long for Julia to figure out how to turn the star on, off, or make the lights flash. She had so much fun playing with it!


If you look closely at her mouth she's about to stay star. She walked all around last night carrying her star and saying star.


Often times when Julia is getting her picture taken she'll say 'cheese' and here she is doing it again...super cute!


They lit the tree and it was so pretty. Julia looks a like sleepy and I thought she'd fall asleep on the ride home but she stayed awake playing with Elmo and her star.


The tree was so pretty and I'm sure you're wondering about the snow. It's kinda hard to believe it snowed in Atlanta in November. Well it's snow alright but not the real stuff!

Coloring

One of Julia's favorite things to do right now is color. We color almost everyday and she really likes to use the colored pencils the best. She's more interested in coloring pictures as compared to coloring in her drawing book with blank pages. Here she is looking at a picture she colored in a Fire Safety Book that we got when we visited the Fire Station in October. If you look close enough she's looking at the car in the picture...Julia loves cars too.


Picking out the perfect color for her picture.


Looks like orange was the color she needed...one of Aunt Kim's favorite colors. Good thing Santa is bringing Julia an Elmo coloring book for Christmas as we're running out of pages in the Fire Safety book.

New Chair

Last night we gave Julia her very own chair and she loves it. It's the perfect size for her and there's even enough room for Elmo. She was pretty funny sitting there last night and saying 'cheese' when I was taking her picture. My little girl is growing up and looking more and more like a big girl everyday.


This morning Julia sat in her chair and watched Sesame Street and played with her Sesame Street music player she got from Grandma. Of course Elmo joined her.

Halloween Weekend 2010

Sorry it's taken me a while to post pictures from Halloween weekend but better late than never. Our friends had a Halloween party so Thomas decided to break out the tie-dye shirt and add a wig and dress up like a hippie. We thought Julia might have been scared but she wasn't scared at all...we called it daddy's funny hat and she was good with it. The Halloween party was fun, we went on a ghost hunt in their backyard and found ghost that had goldfish and raisins in them. YUM!


The weather was so nice that we decided to carve our pumpkin outside instead. Julia enjoyed watching daddy work.


As you can tell by Julia's face she didn't like helping clean out the pumpkin. She didn't want to put her hand in and pull out the seeds and I can't blame her, it's pretty gross. She's not much into getting dirty...that's my girl.


Check out the pumpkin, does it remind you of anything? Thomas drew three pictures and had Julia pick out the one she wanted him to carve on the pumpkin. One was a normal pumpkin carving with triangle eyes and such, a J for Julia, and one that resembled Elmo and you can guess the one she picked....the Elmo face. We laughed because we didn't even tell her it was suppose to be Elmo but that was her favorite. Julia and daddy posing with the Elmo pumpkin after trick or treating.


Julia and mommy had lots of fun trick or treating. We went to about 15 houses and Julia wanted to check out her goodies once she got home. She enjoyed eating some orange nerds and some pretzels. She definitely wasn't sure why we were going up to all these houses that we always go by on our walks and ringing their doorbells. I'm sure she'll understand more next year and want to go to tons of houses.

Texas Trip 10/25/10

As you can see Julia had lots of fun shaking the balloons around. We had lots of fun in Texas and our week went by fast but we were glad to go home and see daddy too.

Texas Trip 10/24/10 - Kim's Baby Shower

Amy (Brad's step sister), Aunt Kim, and I hanging out before the guest arrive for the shower.


This is my absolute favorite picture from our trip and my favorite picture of Julia and Aunt Kim. They both look great. If you look close enough you can see the bruise on Julia's forehead. The night before we went to TCBY for some yogurt and Julia bumped into the corner of a table.


The proud parents-to-be. Brad came to say hello to everyone at the shower for a little bit and to take some photos too.


Julia was so good at the shower, actually she was so good the whole trip including on the airplane. She had a blast playing with a dish of candy and pretending to have Elmo eat all the candy. She thought it was hilarious. I must say it made me laugh too, it was pretty funny!


Aunt Kimmy is so silly and had the cake say Baby Denno Likes Cake!


Kim got tons of the owl stuff she registered for which is the theme of her nursery. Looks like Baby Denno will be styling with that bib but might be a bit small for mommy.


We never took a picture of just Kim and I at the shower so we did once we got home in front of the newly stained fence.


Julia loves playing in her car seat so she was in heaven when we had to bring it inside since we had to switch cars. Aunt Kim didn't realize she had so many things for Julia to play with but she enjoyed playing with the bouncer we gave them and an infant car seat.