Christmas Photoshoot

In Keith's family, we open presents on Christmas Eve.  This meant that we had tons of wrapping paper around on Christmas morning... perfect for a Lucky photoshoot!  I assembled the brightly colored paper around the boppy as Lucas napped. 

The setup

 Keith captured me as I prepared Lucas for the shoot. 

There are so many cute pictures, but only one can make it into Lucky's picture of the day album.  

Lucas has discovered his hands, so he holds all the time.  Super cute! 

Daddy helping us capture smiles

Oooooooooo!

The winner! 

The following pictures don't need a caption.  I think they speak for themselves. 

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, everyone! I couldn't resist doing some really cute holiday pictures with little Lucky. Can you believe that he his now two months old?

The first night of Chanukkha. 

Anime cry eyes

THANKSGIVUKKAH!

We're very thankful for Lucas!

Now that the holidays are out of the way, it is time for Lucky's latest milestone, he's now 2 months old! He was such a ham in our photoshoot that I couldn't pick just one picture.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Well done smile capture mode on camera.  (Turns out my response time is better, but 5 pictures in a row has captured some pretty nice ones.) 

Happy boy laying in his crib

Full body shot.  (I couldn't get his whole body and him smiling at the same time...)

Obligatory crying shot

I love our purple Christmas tree.  (We had a purple tree before any association with Northwestern!  This tree will be a lot more special again once we move.)  This Jewish girl still gets super excited when it comes to decorating the tree.  Each year we put on Die Hard as the background while I trim and Keith supervises.  This year, Lucky and Keith were the supervisors offering suggestions while I placed the ornaments.  One of these years we'll have to get actual Christmas music, or at least find a kid friendly Christmas movie to play when Lucky becomes more aware of his surroundings. 

 

Now given how much I love to put the baby in cute situations, do you think I'd pass up an opportunity to play with the baby and our tree?   

Our little reindeer/elf

Merry Christmas, Everyone! 

Happy Halloween (and how Indy gets along with the baby)!

The Brown Family Pumpkin Patch!

We are so happy that our two baby boys are getting along so well.  It seemed fitting for Lucky's first costume to be a pumpkin.  You cannot tell in this first picture, but one of the pumpkins is wearing a Red Sox hat.  And yes, I did bedazzle a pumpkin with purple rhinestones (before the baby was born, I don't have that much time now!)    

When it comes to his baby brother, Indy isn't a "Bad Dog" at all.  He is gentle and sweet with the baby.   He knows that the baby is something precious, and is very gentle whenever the baby is on the floor.  Indy does like to sniff little Lucky, and maybe lick his foot, but otherwise he stays back unless we encourage him to come closer.  Keith and I picked out this costume for him because the baby can only see high contrast items currently.  In a black and white costume, this should be stimulating to the baby.  A win, win, win in my book!  (It doesn't hurt that Indy's command to go to his crate is "Go to Jail!")

I also want to add that Indy has never been more photogenic until we had the baby, which is great because we really only have one subject flailing around!  

Hoth Version 1.0

As the culmination of the birthday advent calendar Rebecca put together for me, I constructed the Hoth base Lego set. Since the very first time I saw the Star Wars trilogy, the Empire Strikes Back was always my favorite, and the scenes on Hoth ranked the top in that movie. I think I was drawn to the snow scenes because of fond memories playing in the snow with my brother.

Indy was very interested in the construction process. Luckily, he never got his paws on any Lego pieces

Once the base was finished, I added in the rest of my sets and figures. It was a sight to behold. 

Much like the movie, the rebels didn't really stand a chance. 

I'm going to vote for Indy being a Wampa this year for halloween. I also plan on using basic blocks to make a more impressive Hoth base for future epic battles. "Imperial troops have entered the base!

Keith's Birthday Advent Calendar

Another year, another birthday and Keith is now 29.  Last year I gave Keith the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar (7958) at the beginning of February. I was thrilled when I saw that Lego released another advent this year (LEGO 2012 Star Wars Advent Calendar 9509) but quickly discovered that the set contained mostly items from movies 1-3. The original trilogy pieces were Hoth troopers... which was both a good thing and a bad thing. Since Keith has been collecting the Hoth series, I decided that it would be fun to create a custom Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar myself (and with a lot of help on Ebay.)

On Ebay I found some specialty figures from older sets.  Thanks to the Thanksgiving Death Star Adventure, Keith already owned minifigures of most of the main characters.  

Jacob got into the advent action by contributing some items from his own collection.  Endor Luke and some troopers and bikes.  

I realized that I had so much stuff that it was hard to divide this into a 20 day advent, but I had a lot of fun trying.  My favorite day was day 19, where there was a Death Star Orb filled with 13 storm troopers.

I hope that I haven't set a precedence that I will make a custom advent every year, especially since we have run out of room to display these so some will need to live in a box in the closet.  

Happy Birthday, Keith! 

Chile for New Years

This past December, Keith and I went to Chile for New Years to visit our friends Sam and Caroline who have been living there since September 2012.  Alan and Jenn also went to Chile so we had a full PALS reunion in South America!

We spent most of the time in Santiago where Sam and Caroline have been living and working, but we also went down to Valapariso and Viña del Mar for New Years Eve.  We did so much exploring of the city, and had adventures including hiking, running a 5k with some stray dogs and eating LOTS of epanadas.

A view of Santiago

Everyone decided that it was worth bringing running clothes to Santiago, and there was even mention of finding a 5k for us to run together.  Since I was the only Pal to not run with the others, I decided that we should create our own 5k.  Keith and I ordered medals to surprise the pals.  We ran the first part of the 5k together, and then while Jenn and I continued the circuit the others ran a little further before meeting up with us at the end.  This run was a blast already, but it was made better by the fact that some stray dogs decided to adopt us and run the whole 5k!

Viña and Valpo were much colder than Santiago, so we didn't really spend a lot of time on the beach.  There was so much to see and do in these coastal towns that we didn't mind.  The murals in Valapariso were absolutely amazing, and we had a blast walking around the hills.

 

New Years was perfect.  We cooked dinner and chilled around our apartment before going to the beach for an epic fireworks display.   I am so glad that we got to visit Sam and Caroline while they were living around the world!

Do you want to see more pictures from our trip?  Check out Rebecca's Facebook Album: New Years in Chile.

(Of course, while we were in Chile we HAD to look for yarn shops in Santiago.  We found a whole district and everyone was very accommodating while I shopped.  You can read more about this over at ChemKnits.)

Indys first Chanukah

Last year, Chanukah began on Dec 20, 2011 (when Keith and I were already on our honeymoon), so Indy has never had the chance to really celebrate Chanukah!  We are pleased to be celebrating it this year with a new toy/surprise every day.

Grandma Rosalie picked out many toys over Thanksgiving, and even saved up Toilet Paper rolls for him to play with!

The pyramid we created for Indy to play with.  Video of subsequent description should be coming soon. 

And the destruction.  He is very proud of himself!

For the 3rd night, Indy got a squeeky beer bottle toy.  He loves running around the house with this, which is a HILARIOUS sight.

We are using two Menorahs this year. One that I received for my Bat Mitzvah (16 years ago!) and another that I got for my birthday a few years ago.

As you can tell from his ears, Indy knows that he is not allowed to be up on the radiator.  He tends to avoid the area near the candles entirely.  

For the second night of Chanukah, I made latkes.  They were delicious, but unfortunately I burned her arm on the splatter screen.   (I am doing fine now, but was very unhappy this night!)

Indy is getting really good at his latest trick, STEADY.  We can put a treat or some small toys, on his nose and he will stay still until we give the release, OKAY.  He is getting better and better at holding still so that I can even capture a photo!