Thanksgiving 2009

Mom decided at the last minute to come be with us during Thanksgiving. She drove up on Monday and stayed till Saturday. I had to work some while she was here but we were able to have some good quality time together. On Monday, Mom got here and Adam and I had to go to the funeral for baby Hannah so we left right after she got here. She stayed here and watched Grace for us. We got something to eat on the way home and brought Mom something back to eat. On Tuesday and Wednesday Adam worked. On Tuesday, Mom, Grace, and I went shopping at the consignment shop, and a couple of other stops and then Mom took us out to Tumbleweed to eat dinner. It was good and we took Adam some food home. On Wednesday, we went looking for a chest of drawers for our bedroom . Mom knew we have been looking for a while and we found a used one at the Peddler's Mall. It was reasonable priced and looked really good to be used. Mom was very generous to buy this for us since our other one has been caving in and the drawer face had come off of the front of our other chest. Adam was able to get help from someone at church and use their truck to go pick it up on Friday. When Adam got home from work on Wednesday night, he was feeling 'sick', had some stomach issues that lasted into Thursday (Thanksgiving). I went in to work night shift on Wednesday and slept till after lunch on Thursday. When I got up I helped Mom some with the cooking. We had a very good Thanksgiving meal but unfortunately Adam didn't get to enjoy until Friday. We also made a Gooey Apple Cake that had a caramel icing and it was delicious! It is really good served warm right out of the oven too! YUM!

On Friday, Mom and I got out pretty early for some Black Friday shopping!:) We got some really good deals on some toys, and things at Walmart. We then got geared up for the Iron Bowl that thankfully ended in our favor!:) I ended up being able to get canceled for part of my shift on Friday night so I ended up working from 7pm till about 12:30am. Mom left to go home on Saturday morning and I worked Saturday night.

Grace was 'eating up' the attention from Nana. She was still calling for her for a couple of days after she left!:)

We are very excited about going 'home' to AL a week from tomorrow for a early Christmas with our family. Christmas is even more fun this year with Grace! I told Mom I can see why you would want to over spend on your child just because there is so much cute and fun things out there that you know your child would love! We have gotten her stuff she is really going to love though! Very excited!

An early Christmas gift!:) CHEST OF DRAWERS! YAY! The wood is actually a little darker than the pic displays and Mom brought us that T.V. from her house to use so we would have a bigger T.V. for our bedroom with DVD player.

Grace with her Nana the day Nana left to go home!

Our Thanksgiving Dinner.. Nothing fancy, just good! :) And the cake.. below..

Grace eating her first real Thanksgiving Dinner!!:) Most of us didn't even get out of our P.J.'s on Thanksgiving.

We didn't really take very many pictures. Grace is getting to the stage of not really wanting to pose for the camera. ........More later on putting up the Christmas Tree!;)

On a lighter note..

Christmas is fast approaching. We were able to do a little shopping for Grace last week. The gift giving side of Christmas is even more fun with Grace this year, because she actually enjoys certain things. When we go to the store she actually has a desire for things she sees.. :) We have been wanting to get her a little 'Grace-sized' comfy chair for her to sit on in the living room. When she watches Sesame Street or Boz, etc. she would just stand in front of the T.V. the whole time. We found this cute little 'Dora The Explorer' chair. We were going to save it for Christmas but we couldn't bare the thought of hiding it for over a month when she could be using it NOW!:) We ended up giving it to her that night and she LOVES it! When we first gave it to her she would tote it around to every room she went to. She also gets SOOO excited when she comes down stairs in the morning and sees her chair. She says 'Dah' Dah' because she can't say the 'r'. She has since been trying to climb on it and every thing in between.

Before church Sunday..

Very 'focused' on watching 'Boz'!:) She was snuggled in her chair like her Mommy.. Gotta have the blanket!:)

Very Sad News..

We got word yesterday that the a couple that is in our ABF and mission group lost their baby (Hannah) yesterday afternoon. Hannah was 2 months old. I found out later that she and her older sister (who is 3) were with their Dad and the Dad (Eugene) and Paige (older sister) laid Hannah down for a nap yesterday afternoon and later found her pale and not breathing. They called 911 and the EMS told Eugene how to perform CPR over the phone while they were waiting on the EMS to get there. They rushed her to the hospital but unfortunately, she was GONE!

We have all been so heartbroken over this, and I have especially been very 'torn up' about the news. You see, this is a couple in our church who are new believers in the Lord, who have been trying to get their life on track! They have struggled in so many ways with things of the past, and they have dealt with losing jobs, Jessica (the Mom) was robbed this year on the job while being pregnant with Hannah. They have also struggled financially. I don't mean just a little bit, but seriously struggled!! I could go on and on.. but I tell you this to let you know what they have already been through.

When Jessica had Hannah, I went to the hospital to see them on my way to work one night. I felt kind of drawn to them because I knew they needed 'love' and people around them that cared! The day I saw Jessica in the hospital, I didn't get to see Hannah because she was in the special care nursery. She was born term, but had some breathing issues after birth. Her breathing was really fast and because of this she had to stay in the hospital a little longer until it slowed. When they brought Hannah home her breathing was still a little fast and it kept improving with time. Our class took meals to them and Grace and I took a meal to them that first week they were home (while Adam was working). I remember looking down at precious little Hannah with very blonde hair (like her Daddy) and blue eyes. Her Momma had her wrapped in a pink fleece blanket and she was just beautiful. Soon after Jessica started bringing her to church. I think of all the times I looked at her and was so close to her and I didn't know she was going to be GONE just like that! Her Mom had her in a sling one Sunday and she slept so peacefully during church. I also remember the Sunday before last when we had our mission group in the gym. Hannah laid in her carrier and slept the whole time until the very end and she woke up hungry and Jessica was shuffling to get her a bottle together. I remember going to get the water in the bathroom so Jessica could mix her a bottle, and helping her..

Then, I think about this past Sunday. I sat by Jessica at church and at the mission group on Sunday night. We sat right next to each other on the couch while she held Hannah. She slept some of the time and was alert some too. I remember telling Jessica how alert she is now! Her big blue eyes looked at me as I smiled and 'baby talked' to her! She was looking at me right in the eye. I gave Jessica a paci for her that night too, because she had told me that she liked the green hospital pacifiers, and I had one that Grace never used. So I gave that to her and she sucked on it this night and went to sleep while we were there.

I tell you this because it is therapeutic for me too. I couldn't sleep last night because I was replaying every thing in my mind. Once again, I was blatantly reminded that we are not guaranteed tomorrow and that my troubles are not anything compared to what others are facing!

They think Hannah died of SIDS. They are doing an autopsy to make sure. Our class is also going to be working with them to help any way we can. So we will be attending a funeral for a precious babe in the next few days! Oh,... I dread it! I have mourned and mourned.. I can't imagine what her parents must be feeling! Please pray for them!!

As I think about this.. I try to find consolation.. I think of this song by Don Moen........

Think about His love, think about His goodness
Think about His grace that's brought us through
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love
So great is the measure of our Father's love

How could I forget His love
And how could I forget His mercies
He satisfies, He satisfies, He satisfies my desires

Think about His love, think about His goodness
Think about His grace that's brought us through
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love

Great is the measure
Great is the measure
Great is the measure
Great is the measure of our Father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love


(this is a video I found very quickly of him singing the song, it may be a little different from the lyrics.. but same song!) I praise God that we can find comfort in HIM and HIS love!

Happy 19 months Grace!!!

To think back 19 months ago from today, I would have been in the last stages of labor right now. Grace entered this world at 11:03pm. I had no idea how my life would forever be changed. This girl is such a joy and so much fun. She is learning more and more every day and sharing it with the world. It is so fun to watch her do new things and to say new words EVERY DAY.

She is also developing into a Momma's girl! She had always favored her Daddy before. She still likes her Daddy best when it comes to play time because he is so much more fun than me and so much more 'silly'!:) When she first started saying 'Momma' the only time would say it was when she was in 'dire' need. :) When she was sick or upset! This kind of continues today because she is needy a lot of the time now, especially while she is teething. Now she calls for 'Mommy, Mommy' all day long. She wants me when she is tired, not feeling well, or just needs some 'love'! She wants me to hold her a lot of the time too. I can definitely see that I am missed when I leave her now. Adam says she will call for me when I am gone. She does call for Daddy some when he is gone too. Thankfully, she doesn't cry when I leave to go to work. She just stands at the door and waves and tells me 'bye, bye', gives me kisses, and hugs, and blows me kisses when I am in the car. When both of us get home she is very excited to see us! It is such a joy to have her little face greeting us at the door!

I can't say enough how we thank God for her, and we know that we are VERY blessed!

This is before church last Sunday.. she wasn't enthused with me getting her picture!:)

This is just one of the things Grace has been doing lately. She will say 'shhh'. She will do this to us to pretend to be quiet because 'the babies are sleeping'. (This is when she pretends her baby dolls are sleeping). She has got to where she will often tell her babies 'nite, nite' before bedtime and will say 'shhh' to us because they are sleeping!!:0) She will even cover them up with a blanket for the night in the toy box!!

More on Halloween and Festivities

On Saturday (Halloween), we were invited to Evan and Leah's house that we know mostly from Ninth and O Baptist. They were having some people over kind of as a after celebration for their daughter (Kendall) who turned 2 recently and for her daddy, Evan who had a birthday last week too. Most of the kids dressed up in their costumes and one of the couples brought their inflatable jumper and it was set up for the kids too. All the kids had a lot of fun playing outside in the inflatable jumper, on the swing set and just walking around, etc. Grace can't really jump in the inflatable but she did go inside and at first she just laughed at all of the bigger kids when they jumped up and down beside her, making her bounce up and down! We later moved inside and Leah had made some wonderful chili and hot dogs and we had plenty of candy and festive Fall cookies! The kids didn't really eat much (besides candy).. they were more interested in all of the other kids and ran around the house playing with all of Kendall's toys. This was a lot of fun!

Later that day, we went trick or treating some in our neighborhood. We didn't go very long since it was getting pretty cold. We also had a lot of trick or treaters this year and Grace LOVED going to the door and seeing all of the kids that came to our door! She would get so excited!

Later that night before bath she wanted her Daddy to read a book to her. She will say 'wead' when she wants us to read. She really LOVES books. The other night after she got out of the bath she went in to her bedroom and before we could even put clothes on her (she was naked), she sat down in the floor with one of her books and starts flipping through the pages! Very cute!

I know I have said before but blogger makes the picture quality really bad now when I upload through them.. sorry!

These two are random pics before church this past Sunday:)

On our way to Evan and Leah's ...

FUN!!

Some of the girls and kiddos...

Grace was following the little girls in the wagon!:)

Out the door to start trick or treating in our neighborhood!..

Trick or treating with Mom and Dad!..

Very sweet!!!!

18 month Fall Pics

As you can see, Grace and I have been 'playing' today. It is an absolutely gorgeous day today in Louisville. It is between 78-81 degrees, sunny, with a nice breeze. I HAD to get out in this wonderful weather. I have been thinking lately about how I wanted to get some pictures up at the seminary of some of the Fall beauty so I got an idea to take some pics of Grace for 18 months using my own camera. I didn't really get the best of the Fall colors. I had Grace by myself and we just had to make do with what we had in the pictures. My camera battery went dead on me too so I had to end my photo shoot short!:) I know Grace was disappointed!:) She actually LOVED walking around out there and exploring her surroundings. She was really just getting excited when my camera went dead! Oh well!! I think I got some pretty good ones anyway!

I am trying to attach a slideshow of the pics. I don't know why but after doing the slideshow it makes all the pictures look a little shifted to the right. I guess you get the idea. I am also upset because it is showing all of the pics I have put on photobucket before so at the end it goes in to her 13 month pics that we had gotten at the Seminary. I tried to move them to another album but I can't figure out how to right now. So I guess you all get to see the difference 5 months have made in Grace!:)

Fall Festival and More..

We had a Fall Festival at our church last night with blow up bouncers and slides, cake walk, games, hayrides, food and candy, etc. A lot of people came out for the Festival and it went really great. Grace was scared to do the blow up things. She is not really old enough yet to be able to fully enjoy it because she can't do all of the fun things. The kids looked very cute in their costumes and some adults even joined in on the 'dress up'!:) Grace just walked around with us and she was able to play one of the games where she rings the basketball hoop with the ball and she gets candy. She did ring it so she had her first sucker! :) She really liked that and she had grape sucker juice dripping down her face!:) The thing she liked most was the hayride. She enjoyed walked around and seeing the other kids in the back of the trailer while we were waiting to 'take off'. The weather was actually pretty mild so that was very nice!

As you know, Grace was a Ladybug. She was not real excited about pictures yesterday and had even started that a little before we left the house. I thought she just didn't want her picture made because she had acted fine all day. When we got there, she was doing the same thing but more.. she would fuss when we tried to get her picture or she just wouldn't smile for the camera. She was 'gnawing' on her hand about the whole time we were at the festival so I was beginning to wonder if her teeth were bothering her and that was the reason for her 'touchy mood'. On the way home she fell asleep in the car WITHOUT her paci (which both of those things are pretty amazing). When we took her in we noticed she felt hot but at first just thought that she had gotten hot in her car seat while asleep. After her bath, she started shivering pretty bad and was very hot and we checked her fever and it was 102.0 rectally. This really concerned us because we were worried that she might be coming down with a bad sickness. We gave her some Motrin and she went to sleep. She woke up at about 7:45am and was hot and her fever was 101.8 this morning. She has no other symptoms except gets fussy when her temp goes up but after taking medicine has played very well, and been in a good mood. She has mainly only wanted cold and soft food today and hasn't ate a whole lot but as the day went on she only had some Tylenol at 1pm (this usu. only brings her fever down for about 3 hours) when her temp was 101 after 5 hours from the Motrin. Since then she hasn't had any medicine and has been acting okay and I checked her fever tonight and it is only 100.0 rectally. Which is really like 99.0. So I am pleased that her fever has went down on it's own as the day has progressed and she seems better. I now think it may be just related to a inflammatory response to her teeth. I was looking in her mouth and she is cutting ALL 4 first Molars on the other sides. They are still working on coming all the way through. When, I saw that.. I thought... this probably explains it! The Molars are the WORST for babies/toddlers to cut. We will see tomorrow but I pray this is the case and that she will quickly feel better.

On the other hand, all is well in the Brown house. I am posting some pics and a video that Adam got of the Fall Festival. You can also see how Grace's hair is growing. Slowly but surely Grace's hair has been growing. Her hair is starting to grow over her ears some and it has gotten kind of wild lately!:) You can see this some in the pics.

We will see what this weekend holds. We have been invited to a friends house on Saturday to celebrate birthdays for Kendall who just turned 2 and for her Daddy. We will decide if we can go later depending on Grace. If I think Grace has any 'sickness' and if the fever doesn't go away real soon we won't go because I certainly don't want to expose any other kiddos to sickness, etc. We also plan on taking Grace trick or treating around our neighborhood if she is okay. We will see!

This video gives you all a better idea of what the Festival was like. As you can see, when Adam pointed the camera to Grace she fussed. That summed it up.. :)

Our little ladybug before we left the house..

Grace giving hugs to Bella Kate (little ballerina)
Bella's Mommy and Daddy are in our home group too so Grace gets to play with her a good bit!

Grace and Paige.. holding hands.. (Snow White)

Grace got to participate in 1 game :) And she made the hoop!:) (With the exception of Daddy taking her on the cake walk)

And ..enjoying her prize!.. She loved the sucker!

Daddy, serious Grace, Brian and Abigail!

These two pics are friends of ours.. Brian and Faith above with kids that Faith Nanny's. They were all decked out in the Scooby Doo theme! Weren't they cute!! The little girl is showing off the cake she won!:)

This is Ashley to the right and her baby Emma Grace (another Lady Bug) that Holly (she has my name:) is holding. Ashley is our Pastor's wife.

Grace enjoyed the blow up bouncer from the OUTSIDE. She LOVED watching other kids through the side jumping up and down. She just laughed and smiled at them...

This is out Pastor Jon Akin and his other daughter to the left of the picture. Her name is Maddie..

Maddie was Cinderella. Grace loves Maddie and Maddie loves Grace. They are in our home group too and Grace calls her 'Mammie'! :) They have so much fun playing together and giggling!

Grace was making her presence known on the hayride (while we were sitting still) and LOVING the other kids!

Gnawing on her arm....

These are more just random pictures and you can see her hair more..

Aunt Carey check out her shoes.. recognize them!:)