Monster Trucks

Every year Shane takes Tyler to see the Monster truck show at Raymond James Stadium....it always takes place in February so it works out to be a great birthday gift for Tyler. They went with some of their buddies- Joey & Colton. We had a small birthday cake & gifts and surprised him with his tickets~ he was soooo excited!

Giving Dad a high-5 for his tickets!

His monster truck birthday cake!

GRAVE DIGGER~ Tylers favorite!!

All the boys!

Daddy Daughter Dance

This year was Rylee's first year participating in the Annual Auburndale's Daddy/Daughter Dance. This is a very big deal to these girls and a big event for the town. We of course went crazy with the whole thing and had a great time doing it. I let Rylee go online and pick out her own dress, went to the mall and she picked out her own earrings & tiara from Claires and shoes of course. The day of the dance all of us moms meet early that morning and took the girls to get their toes & nails painted, we went to lunch at pizza connection and then they had hair appts at Tanglez to get "up-do's"!! After that we all went home to get dressed & ready to go. Rylee just had the best day getting all pampered & when she put on her dress she was absolutely gorgeous!! Well we met back up with the group at Hollis Gardens~ which is a beautiful place in Lakeland to take pictures...that is where we had the limo pick them up (yes I did say limo & no I dont know what they are gonna expect once they finally get to go to prom?? ;) ...And of course they finally get to get rid of us moms!! ha!! Shane said "this is not the Daddy/Daughter/Mom dance"....but it is really hard for us moms to let go....afterall we put in a lot of hardwork behind the scenes that the dad dont have to worry about. We help get the dress picked out, get it altered to fit, arrange for all tickets, limo, hair appts, corsages, etc. All we ask is to just be there to take some pictures ahead of time! :) ....The limo took all of them to the dance which is at the civic center, where they had a professional picture taken, had dinner and of course a DJ for a fun night of dancing! After the dance we meet them all at Chilis for dessert to top the night off! Rylee literally talked about this for days after~ she had such a wonderful time and is already talking about what dress she wants for next year! Thanks Shane for being such a great Daddy and giving Rylee memories that she will never forget! I love you both!

Rylee's corsage

Pinning on Daddy's flower

Daddy & Ry on the dance floor!

Rylee & Marissa getting their dance on!!

Valentines Day Fun

It is Valentines Day and yet another tradition in The Brown house! I am actually learning through writing this blog that we have a lot of little traditions~mostly ones I am passing down from my mom! She has always gave my brother & I all these different goodies for the holidays up until we moved out of the house! And I love it too~ I get the kids small baskets and pick up small items here and there a couple weeks before the holiday to fill it with. Shane is usually in charge of the stuffed animals and of course the cards~ he is DEF the card man at our house. He always picks out the best ones!! The kids really loved all their goodies & especially the candy!!

They love getting their V-day goodies!!

LB's 33rd Birthday

This year I turned 33-AHHH! It stinks getting old! But at least I have great friends to celebrate it with!! They all planned a girls night out for us....we went to City Walk in Orlando and ate at Bubba Gumps, then to Red Coconuts for a little dancing to the house band....then decided to head out once more to the dance hall at the boardwalk to dance the night away....all of us girls love to get out and dance and have a good time but with kids and families that is kinda hard to do so this was a great opportunity for us to all get out and have a good time! Thanks to all my girls! Darnell, Serena, Christa, Krissy, Carrie, Misty, Milena & Stacy

Rylee's 9th Birthday

January 22, 2009 Rylee turned 9 years old! I cant believe my baby is already 9- time flys by!! She decided she wanted to have a slumber party this year- so we had a pizza party at Pizza Hut and invited all the boys and girls and parents. Then afterwards we took all the girls back home for a slumber party. Well just to give a little inside scoop- my back went completely out the day of the party so thank goodness Danielle stayed over to be the helper- I would not have been able to make it thru without her!! We had stations around the house to do the girls nails, make-up and hair. And we actually used one of her gifts- a bracelet making kit and all the girls got to make a cute bracelet to take home. The best part of the night was the talent show- all the girl got into groups and made up a dance to perform for everyone! I am sure this is a party she will not soon forget!! I luv you my little Ry Ry bug!!

New Years Eve Celebration Continued!!

After spending a nice time during the day with the kids....we dropped them off at my parents and met up with our close friends Danielle & Joey Brooks and headed out to Orlando. We had a hard time deciding where to go for dinner since everywhere was such a long wait~ so we decided to go to the old faithful Olive Garden in Celebration....but it actually worked out since we had not been there in a long time. It was so nice ...we were able to get a table right away and eat dinner. We had already planned ahead and bought tickets to the Atlantic Dance Hall at The Boardwalk. And thank goodness we did because it seemed to be sold out~ people were waiting in line when we got there for others to leave so they could get in!! ......We had a great time dancing all night and watching the fireworks. We watched Dick Clark countdown on the big screen and rang in the new year with a kiss!!

Us 4 on the dancefloor!

Ringing in the New Year with kiss!

Midnight kisses!

New Years Eve with the Kiddos!

This year we wanted to be able to have an adults outing to ring in the new year but also wanted to spend some time with the kids. So we decided to get our friends together with all the kids and go bowling during the day.....we had pizza, chips & drinks & bowled for a couple of hours! The kids had a great time & we def. wore them out for Nana & Papa later that night!!

The Browns getting ready to bowl!!

The Gals!!

All the kiddos!!

Time for Catch Up!!!

Ok so this is really bad....I havent been blogging in sooo long!! Once Christmas was over things got a little crazy at the Brown household.... I started school at Ridge Career Center for Nails, Rylee had FCAT testing at school and then of course the usual- both kids birthdays, t-ball season & end of the year dance recital & school functions.....so maybe I will start with January and do a quick blog & picture for each month to catch up....then hopefully I will have some free time during the summer to keep this going....we shall see....no promises but I will try!!

Santa Secrets.....Sssshhhh!!!

Tyler's Santa Gift- Nintendo DS & a game and his special sleigh bell

Rylee's Santa gift- Wii & Mario Kart and her special Sleigh Bell

Before Christmas I just put a couple of wrapped presents for each kid under the tree. Then on Christmas Eve, after we go thru all of our traditions, and the kids go to bed, I put the rest of their presents from us under the tree and Santa leaves his "big Santa gifts" and fills their stockings. Every Christmas the kids write a letter to Santa to leave with the cookies and milk and have been asking for him to leave a half eaten cookie, etc. Well this year Rylee decided to step it up a little to see if Santa really "is real"!! She asked (the day before Christmas may I add!) for him to leave them the usual cookie and also a bell from his sleigh!! So mommy got a little creative this year- I ran up to walmart and bought 2 big bells from the ornament section and some spray glitter. I also found some cute really big gift tags. I always buy some sort of Santa wrapping paper without the kids and wrap their "Santa gifts" in it and throw it away without them seeing- wasteful I know but gotta destroy the evidence!! Well this year I wrapped their presents and sprayed them down with the glitter and did the same to the "sleigh bells". The kids went crazy- those bells def. came from Santa's sleigh...they even have glitter on them from the reindeer food we put in the yard- that's what Rylee said!! .....Well that just made all the work worth it!!

Family Traditions

Each year, growing up my parents would always let my brother & I open 1 present on Christmas Eve and it was always PJ's. So since I have had children we have continued this tradition...of course I feel bad that they are getting just jammies so I also let them open one other small present. It is so funny because now they just expect it as I did and it has become pretty funny!! This year also my parents came over to join in on the fun. We also have a couple of other Christmas Eve traditions- we bake cookies for Santa and leave them on a special plate for him and let the kids leave their letters for him too. They have a great time baking and decorating the cookies and pouring the milk for him. They also write their letters and the last 2 years have started asking for Santa to leave them things. This year they wanted him to leave "bells from his sleigh"....DEAR LORD!! So of course- I go out to Walmart at the last minute and buy these big bells and spray them down with glitter spray to make them sparkly. ...Anyway, after we set out our cookies and open the 2 gifts we make the reindeer food. We have done this since Rylee was probably 2 years old- we take silver glitter and a couple packs of cinnamon apples oatmeal in a ziploc bag and shake it up. We then take them out to the front yard and let them sprinkle the food all over the yard! It is sooo much fun and they get the biggest kick out of it! I just love this age- they are really able to understand everything that is going on and participate but are still innocent enough to BELIEVE!! I will be soo sad to see it end that is why I go thru as much as I do to make it as fun as I can for them!! Well here are some pics of Christmas Eve- I will add more Christmas soon!

Opening one of their Christmas gifts!!

Ry & her HSM PJ's!

He loved his Hulk Jammies- that boy is so goofy!!

We gave Nana & Papa their gifts on Christmas Eve!

Ready to sprinkle reindeer food in the yard!

Tyler being silly with his cookie!

Ry's cookies

Tyler's letter to Santa

Rylee's letter to Santa