What have the Brown's been up to?

A. Have they been relaxing on a white sand beach by the ocean?
B. Have they been snoozing on the couch?
C. Have they been hiding?
D. Have they been trying to unpack their new house, get ready for all the holidays and watch over a curious little girl?

All of those sound appealing but if you picked D, you are correct! Your grand prize is reading a brand new blog for 2010!

Since there has been a lot going on and a couple months since I last posted, I will have to break this up in categories to keep my sanity (and so I don't forget anything). Sorry if this is long!

We moved!
We officially closed on our house on November 9th and started moving everything from our garage into the house. Luckily we were able to get everything into the garage the week and weekend before with big help from Matt's dad. Matt's uncle and cousin even came and helped for a day as well. With me trying to take care of a little girl, Matt needed all the help he could get!
Here is Lyla playing at the old house. How did I get under my activity center?

Since I have so many new pictures to share in this blog, I will update with pictures of the new house soon.

My parents came up a couple days ago to help paint Lyla's room. I have projects I want to get done and with them leaving until the end of March, I thought that would be great time for them to help. Here are before and after pictures of Lyla's new room. You can't really tell from the pictures but her room was blue with hand painted pictures all around. We wanted to keep the tree in the corner and with guidance from my aunt Phyllis, we were able to keep it!

Before:


After:


The house is pretty well put together and our next project is to get the garage straighten out. I may need a couple weekends break before I help Matt tackle that project!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving at grandma Brown's. Lyla is definitely the entertainment of the day. Here she is getting pushed across the room in a cardboard box from Aunt Marge.

Lyla and Great Grandma Brown

Grandma and Grandpa Brown

No blog is complete without a closeup of Lyla!

Hanging out with my bearded dad

Mom I'm missing my sock!

Lyla and I drove down to my parents house on Thursday night so we could get up bright and early to go shopping on black Friday. Do you think having a 8 month old would slow my mom and me down? Nope! We decided to go shopping even earlier than before (4:00 a.m. mind you) so we could get great deals! Lyla did great and I think we have a new shopper in the family!

Happy Birthday Dad! Here is Lyla celebrating with her dad's 28th birthday!

Merry Christmas!
We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents house with my dad's side of the family. My cousin Jaime and her family came from MI and my other cousin Jody and her family came from MA so it was great seeing everyone!

Here is Lyla helping to unwrap her presents. At least she liked the bows!

Here is Lyla and her cousin Anne (my cousin Jody's daughter). What great buds!

Here is Lyla and her cousin Reagan (my cousin Jaime's daugther). Reagan is the oldest of the grandkids and a great helper already! She will be the leader of the pack!

Cute picture of Lyla and her cousin Anne in the background

Here is great grandma Knox and all the great grandkids! From Left: Anne, Reagan, great grandma Knox, Lyla and Bryce (Jaime's son). We will be adding 2 more to the family next year with my brother's son due beginning of March and my cousin Jaime's baby due end of May. I love our growing family!

Lyla sitting with daddy saying "hi momma"

Family picture

Family picture with grandma and grandpa Knox

Smile big with momma

Ready for bed with PJ's on with cousin Anne! Anne why are you leaning on me?

On Christmas day, we traveled to my aunt Phyllis's house with my mom's side of the family. Lyla got to play with her cousin Keira (my cousin Nick's daughter). They are expecting their 2nd baby in April so we will have lots of new baby's in 2010!

Lyla's auntie Kristi came to spoil her before we headed up to WI for the Brown X-mas. Lyla loves her new toy!

Brown's X-mas:

Since we celebrated in IL this year for X-mas, we had our Brown x-mas a day later. Lyla got a lot of presents and again was the center of attention.

Here is uncle Mike and aunt Nikki showing Lyla her new toy. Mike we will get you back someday!

Our blog is definitely not complete without a picture of Ella. Here is Ella with her new baby. It only lasted 10 minutes before Ella decided to tear it up!

I think that's all I can write today! I hope you enjoyed the new updates and pictures!