The Search for the Tree

It's becoming a tradition in the Brown household to put up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We thought we'd extract Dan's inner lumberjack and go cut down a tree, as much as can be done at a Christmas tree farm.

Ameliah looking for the perfect tree...

Caught it!

Ameliah wasn't all that keen on helping us decorate, but here's the finished product.  She keeps saying "Ooohh, pretty".  We keep insisting it's not a toy for Ameliah to play with, just to look at, so when she walks by it she says, "No, no". 

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and have a wonderful Christmas!

Photos by the Sea

We take a break from fun Ameliah videos to share some photos that our good friend, Kristen Scott, took for us.  We went to Magnolia and Manchester-by-the Sea, on kind of a grey day, but it was Ameliah's first time at the beach.

Ameliah had fun playing with the balloons that Kristen brought...

We had a little picnic on the Ocean Lawn at the Coolidge Reservation.

Big Girl Slide

This video chronicles one of the first times Ameliah went down the slide at the park by herself: major milestone :).  She gets more and more adventurous every time we go to the park!

Long time no see...

Hey, All!  I've not been the best at updating our blog... understatement.  So, to reintroduce Ameliah into the cybersphere, I want to post some of our favorite videos we've taken.  Why not start with a naked-baby video?  This was on Dan's birthday (July), so Ameliah (17 months) wanted to read him a book.  Enjoy!

Ameliah's 10 months!

I can't believe Ameliah is already 10 months old! It seems like yesterday we had just welcomed her into our world. Among her new talents are signing "milk" and "tired", high-fives, patty cake, waving bye-bye, and eating finger foods. We're working on adding new words to her repertoire. No steps yet, but she's really fast on all-fours. Baby-proofing is a daily experience, as she figures out how to get into things more and more every day.

This is our little scholar on her 10-month-birthday. She loves to look at the pictures and flip the pages. She even reads the words in her own little language.


Then she figured out that I was taking pictures of her...



The phone is one of the things in the house that she doesn't get to chew on/play with, so of course it's one of the things she wants the most...

Here she comes!

Jet-setter Ameliah to Pacific Northwest

In September, the three of us took a trip to the Pacific Northwest to visit some friends and to watch the Huskers beat Washington (yay!). We had a great time visiting our friends the Johnsons in Portland, OR, and then the Larsons in Seattle.

In Oregon we had the chance to visit a few wineries in the Willamette valley near Portland. Ameliah had fun "climbing" on the barrels.

We had a fun hike up to the Multnomah Falls. It was a pretty easy ride on daddy's back for little A.

We went to visit uncle Mark at the Starbucks a couple of mornings while we were there... nothing like taking a ride to the Bux in your jammies.

We took the train from Portland to Seattle; it was a beautiful ride. I think Ameliah was excited that she didn't have to be in the carseat.

We took a quick peek at Snoqualmie Falls near where the Larsons live.

Ameliah - 8 1/2 months

A few fun pics...

Ameliah has recently figured out how to pull herself up to standing, but hasn't mastered how to get down. This was Ameliah trying to go down for a nap...

Here she is with Aunt Coartney while we were back in Nebraska for Aunt Jenny's bridal shower... note the Husker red!

With Ameliah's new-found freedom in getting around, we finally had to get a baby gate for the top of the stairs. Here's Ameliah testing her limits.

Just bein' cute...

"Hello??"