Presents full of Love!

Well, another Christmas has come and gone, and as always, filled with fun and love!

It's always special to a parent to watch their baby's eyes light up when they open a present they really really wanted, and we get a giggle when they look confused after opening up something that wasn't on their Christmas lists... like those educational-type gifts we parents hope will help them in school (such as a 'states' puzzle for Katie and an Alphie for Nathan)! Haha!

Needless-to-say, Santa delivered the 'favored' gifts... Bilbos for both (those green and blue things in the picture), an iPod iTouch and a video camera for Katie, and an electric dirt-bike for Nathan! However, I did buy one present that they really like too called a Fun Fly Stick... it's a wand that uses batteries to produce static electricity and it came with these silver streamer-things the kids chase around with the Fun Fly Sticks! They are pretty cool!

Until next time...

Batter up!!

Nathan has been dying to try-out a sport, and baseball was his choice. I suppose he takes after my brothers when it comes to the urge to play this particular sport, and I hope Nathan sticks to it as long as my two younger brothers did. However, since Chris and myself are not very 'sports oriented', poor Nathan has not yet been exposed, much less introduced, to the simple rules of baseball. So... my little eager batt-swinger participated in a weekend 'Baseball Hitting Camp'. This camp was to teach kids of all ages the basics of hitting a baseball, among other things...

All I can say is, "Nathan had a BLAST, and is now very anxious, excited, and eager to begin baseball season in the Spring!" Nathan got some baseball paraphernalia for Christmas and is really excited about it!!

Below: Nathan was catching and chasing after the baseballs that his 'group' were hitting.

Below: Nathan was learning the "4 B's" of baseball; in this picture he was performing his 'routine' before bringing the bat up to his shoulder to prepare for swinging.

Below: I love this picture! At one of the 'stations', Nathan's group was learning how to run-the-bases. Apparently, sliding to home plate was a favorite move among Nathan's group; and Nathan proved to be good at it too!

Below: At the end of the second day of camp, Nathan was presented with a 'certificate', and he got this really cool t-shirt!

We are SO proud of our future baseball star!

Until next time...

Hmmm, pretty neat-o!

This past Monday evening I took my kiddos to an after-hours party at the Children's Museum for members only; it was called "Gingerbread Bash". This is because the main event of the 3-hr. night was to make a gingerbread house; among other various crafts and the regular playtime.

I guess I had never really given it much thought before, but providing gingerbread kits to close to 1,000 kids has got to be an expensive undertaking. However, leave it to the Children's Museum to find a way to make this event fun; and a way to minimize their costs!

The 'Gingerbread House Kits' consisted of 3 graham crackers, a few pieces of individually wrapped candy, 2 pre-packaged frosting packets, and an empty milk carton... all of which can be bought in bulk to lower costs. Being the very 'crafty' person I am, I'm actually a bit embarrassed to admit that I would have never have thought to use an empty milk carton to paste frosting on to hold the graham cracker walls! Both Katie and Nathan had a great time... then came home and broke their gingerbread houses with their teeth! Hahaha!

I like this picture... it's always nice when both my kids can sit next to eat other without kicking one another from under the table, elbowing each other, or nit-pick arguing! I LOVE these precious moments where they both get along so well!

Until next time...

Hy-Ya!!

I have learned that the difference between watching my son Nathan during his Karate classes, and watching him perform his belt-tests is his level of intensity. Nathan may seem like he doesn't always pay full attention during practice classes, but when he is in front of the large panel of black-belt judges, he gives them 110% ! I am very proud of Nathan achieving his Gold-Belt-Black-Stripe!!

Below: Nathan was demonstrating his 'high-block'...

Below: In this picture, Nathan was demonstrating his 'Reverse Front Punch'...

Below: Nathan is taking off his Gold-belt...

Below: Nathan's judge is putting on his new ranking belt... Gold-Belt-Black-Stripe!

Below: This is Nathan with his weekly class instructor, Mr. Garcia.

CONGRATS NATHAN.... MY FUTURE CHUCK NORRIS!!! HAHA!

Fall of 2010 Shutterfly Photobook

My previous blog had a bunch of pictures from the Super Silly Brown Family's photo session with Ryan Flores Photography... and below is a slideshow of all the pictures I used to make a Photo Book with through Shutterfly.com.

The cool thing about this book is that the lady who manages the Shutterfly Gallery Home Page emailed me to let me know that my book had made the Gallery Home page; which is where 12 different photo books are posted for anyone to view as examples for gathering personal ideas.

When I was first contacted, my photo book had 83 views. And now, three days later, it has had over 1,124 views!! I'm so excited and proud that my photo book is being used as an example for people all over the world to view!! Of course, I owe many thanks to Ryan Flores Photography for taking such gorgeous and silly pictures of our family that really helped our true personalities to shine through! (See below the slideshow for links to view other pictures by Ryan Flores Photography.)

Click here to view this photo book larger

www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Flores-Photography/153340204709058

http://ryanfloresphotography.blogspot.com

Nathan's Super Silly 6th B-day Party!

For Nathan's 6th birthday party this year, he and his friends had the chance to be super silly slick laser-taggers, and super silly wanna-be hamsters!

Date: Saturday, November 20th, 2010

Place: Spring Valley Park

Host Company: Games2U

Below (next 3 pics): Nathan and his super silly laser-tagging posse members...

Below: Nathan and his friends attempting to feel what it's like to be a super silly hamster!

It was a beautiful and amazing day of super silly fun!

Super Silly Family Photos!

THE SUPER SILLY BROWN FAMILY'S FAMILY PHOTOS!

Date: November 7th, 2010

Place: Japanese Gardens in Hermann Park, Houston, TX

Taken By: Ryan Flores Photography

These pictures came out really nice! I could not post all 50+ poses that were taken, so I chose the a few to post here... you can see all 250+ photos at

http://thesupersillybrownfamily.shutterfly.com/

Please enjoy!

New Addition...

The Super Silly Brown Family would like to welcome the newest addition to the 'Rogers' family! My brother Jimmie and his wife Ashley gave birth to their very first child!!

Shea Rose Rogers

Born October 24th, 2010 (same day as Ashley's b-day!)

6 lbs 14 oz., 19-1/4 inches long

at 1:33 pm.

She is beautiful and perfect in every way!

Healthy...

Full head of hair...

Katie holding her new cousin...

Nathan holding his new cousin...

Welcome to our family Baby Shea!!

Perfect Pumpkins!

A few months ago me and the kids started attending the church that I grew-up at as a child; Terrace United Methodist Church. Every year they have a 'Pumpkin Patch' where people can pick pumpkins to buy. This was our first year to attend, and they had this cute set-up for photo-ops! Below is my 'perfect pumpkins' showing off their 'perfect pumpkins'... super-silly!

BRAart Charity Event; October 1st, 2010!!

Wow! Katie and I went to the BRAart Breast Cancer Charity Event and had a super-fab time! I guess word spread pretty quickly that Katie was the youngest BRA-artist to date, so many people kept approaching Katie thanking her and asking to take pictures with her... she felt like a Princess all night long! She loved their candy-bar, and super-loved The Funky Monkey Photo Booth! (This was a really neat idea where party patrons could choose from a variety of hats, masks, glasses, and boas to wear for 6 different photo poses that are instantly printed out onto a postcard-type format!) Katie has already been thinking of how she wants to decorate next year's bra!!

Below: This is the BRA Katie made!

Below: This is the BRA I made...

Below: Katie and me at the BRAtober Event...

Below: This is Katie with one of the 2 Charity Chicks founders; Jayme Lynn!

Super Silly Somerville Camping !

We love to camp!

This past weekend we camped at Rocky Creek Park on Lake Somerville, and once again, we had a blast! Our activities on this fun trip included: Catching fishies (and one leach) from the shoreline; swinging on the hammock; swimming in the lake; being pulled on the inner-tube behind the boat; exploring the lake on the jet-ski; eating mom's yummy camp-cooking; walking on the wooded trails; riding bikes; and just flat-out hanging-out!

I love to watch my kids have a fun-tastic time!

Below: Nathan swimming in the lake!

Below: Nathan eating his mayonnaise and cheese sandwich; yummy!

Below: Katie playing with lilly-pads!

Below: Katie playing on the hammock!

Below: Chris on the inner-tube!

Below: Me on the inner-tube!

Below: A beautiful full-arched rainbow!

Below: Scary looking and large Red Velvet Ant!

Words to live by... according to Nathan

Every Friday both Nathan and Katie come home from school with a "Friday Folder". This folder contains all of the schoolwork they have completed for the entire week. I am not really sure what Nathan's class was supposed to be doing, but it looks like they were to trace the numbers at the top of the page, cut out some pictures from magazines, and glue them to the papers... the funny part is the picture that Nathan glued on the top right of his paper!

"Teach your kids not to share."

So far, this has been Nathan's life "Motto"!

Hahahaha! Too funny!

BraArt !

There is a neat charity group in Houston called "Charity Chics"! Each year they put on this even called BraTober, which is where anyone can decorate a bra and donate it to be auctioned to a predetermined breast cancer charity cause. Last year proceeds went to "Save-the-Ta-Tas", and this year proceeds will be going to a charity called "Bright Pink"! Katie and myself entered the charity event where the top 50 decorated bras will be chosen to be displayed at the BraTober event on October 1st! We are not yet sure if we will be going to the main event since we already have previous plans made during the duration of the event... it's a fancy dress-up event and although I contacted them to see if a 9-year old was allowed to attend (which they said she can), neither of us have anything to wear; we'll see... we will not know if our bras were chosen as the top 50 for another week (on September 25th).

Below: This is the bra I decorated... I called it "Bra-tastic" because each bottlecap has some kind of inspiring word or picture...

Below: This is the bra Katie entered... she called hers "Sparkle-Gram" because it's sparkly!

WISH US GALS LUCK!

Even if we don't get picked, we did this for special reasons!

Corpus Christi, Texas

Yea, I know, I know... I haven't posted anything in two months.

Our family wanted to take a mini-vacation before school started back up for the kids, so we took a short weekend trip down to Corpus Christi, Texas mid-August to visit the Texas State Aquarium, the Museum of Science and History, and Katie and I got to ride horses on the beach on South Padre Island during sunset! It may have been a short vacation, but it was super-fun!

Below: Our hotel had a backdoor that allowed us access to the bay, and we could see the USS Lexington as well!

Below: This was taken in front of the Texas State Aquarium...

Below: This was taken at the Museum of Science and History; we toured replicas of Christopher Columbus' ships!

Below: This is Katie and me riding our horses on South Padre Island at sunset! It was beautiful!

Now, if you know me, and many of you do, I took WAY more pictures than this! So, if you would like to see all 200+ pictures, please visit my family Web site at:

http://thesupersillybrownfamily.shutterfly.com/