27 November 2011

Busy month this month.  We bought a house and moved in and unpacked and tried to figure out how to live in this new space that's going to be home for years to come.  Mr. Brown has been busy with home improvement projects and has been so far successful and has learned a lot.  He loves our new house.



Also we're expecting a baby next May so there have been the beginning of doctor's visits and hormonal mood swings.  Everyone but me thinks it's a girl.  I think it's probably a girl too, but I was hoping for a boy.  We're taking suggestions for names because so far nothing has sounded right to me.  Today I suggested 'Zephyr' to Mr. Brown.  He said, is that a boy or a girl name? and I said, it could be either! 



For Thanksgiving my brother came up from Chicago and we had a good time with him: riding bikes, going to parks, raking the lawn at 'the cabin' (what Nut Brown calls the rental we just moved out of), and of course cooking (although my brother mostly contributed by washing dishes, which was greatly appreciated).  A few other notes:



I say to Nut Brown today, You're getting so big!  When did you get so big? and he says, I'm almost an adult!



Tonight at our first Advent celebration for this year, Rose Pink sang her version of 'The Friendly Beasts' to our guests.  It's to the tune of 'The Streets of Laredo'.  She's a superstar.



Nut Brown, at Family Home Evening a couple weeks ago, struggled to bear his testimony as Mr. Brown was talking about the plan of salvation and the role of our Savior.  We waited as he stumbled with his words and finally just said, 'I know... I know... I know that God is TRUE.'  It was beautifully sincere statement from our dear little boy who was obviously feeling the Spirit and trying to verbalize.



Our kids both did an excellent job in the Primary Program at church this month.  Rose Pink was asked to 'share her testimony of the prophet', and she and I came up with, "I know who President Monson is.  He speaks at General Conference.  I recognize him by his hair."  She was dismayed when people laughed during rehearsals, but when we discussed some other things she could say, and the importance of sharing honest feelings, she went ahead with the original line.



Nut Brown was asked to 'share a time when your prayers were answered'.  That's a bit much for a four-year-old, so instead he got to tell a story that had just happened on our trip to the beach, about how he had gotten lost and his mom had said a prayer asking for help to find him, and was given that help.  It was a long story with six or seven sentences (I made up a little card for him with picture cues) but he did the whole thing perfectly.



We're going to see my brother in Chicago graduate in two weeks and looking forward to that.  I really appreciate at my new job that my supervisors are more flexible with time off. :)