Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Trick-or-Treat at Daddy's Work

Today, Russ' work had a Children's Parade for all the kids of the employees. We all went and trick-or-treated through the cubicles. It was really funny. Josh had a blast and really raked it in with all the candy. Unfortunatley, he can only eat about half of it due to his food allergies, but that can also be a good thing!



Josh wore his shark costume and tried to scare everyone. Emory was a peacock. This is the first year they have ever dressed up and they really had a fun time. Thanks again to Uncle Justin for the birthday gifts (their costumes). I carried Emory most of the time and she seemed to enjoy seeing new faces. Josh, being the good brother that he is, always collected candy on his sister's behalf :)


Here's Josh making a scary shark face!


Here's Emory laughing at Daddy. And another one of her trying to crawl with all those feathers!
All in all, it was a fun visit and it was nice getting to see where Russ spends a lot of his time. Josh wasn't too excited about that part of it, but he did get to draw a tornado on Daddy's white board!

School Fall Fest Pary

Yesterday Josh's school celebrated Fall Fest. The kids came dressed in their costumes and the room Mom's (me and another mom) planned crafts, activities, and a yummy snack for them. It was a lot of fun getting to be up there to celebrate with Josh. Poor Emory came along for the ride too. You can see her in her stroller in the background of this pic.


Josh dressed up as a shark. He was very excited about it but told me the night before that he wanted to be a Power Ranger instead! He's never even seen Power Rangers but there is a boy (Zachary) in his class who loves it and evedently they "play" Power Rangers together on the playyground I guess. That morning, Josh seemed to be excited about being a shark again and I thought he'd forgotten all about the Power Ranger thing. However, when we got to school and the teacher went around asking the kids who they were, Josh announced that he was dressed as a Power Ranger Shark! Here's a pic of my Power Ranger Shark cutting paper. He is sitting across from his Pirate friend, Zachary.

And a class picture!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Big Orange Pumpkin Farm

Today we went to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina - about 20 minutes Northeast of here. We went with Zachary, Josh's friend from school, and his Mom, sister, and sister's friend. Josh and Emory both had a great time. The farm has lots of animals that you can feed. Josh mostly liked feeding the goats and sheep because the cow's mouths were a bit too slobbery and big for his liking.





There were lots of old trackors, four wheelers and trailers to climb on. Josh enjoyed climbing the giant hay bail painted like a pumpkin. There was also a hay ride that Emory loved probably because she got to be out of her stroller for a bit. Here's Zack driving the tractor with Josh along for the ride.



When it was time to get our pumpkins there was a mad dash to the pumpkin patch. Josh picked out a pumpkin for himself - not until after running the entire length of the patch of course! Here's Josh, Zachary, Allie, and Haley sitting on their pumpkins.



And Emory got a pumpkin too!

Community Helper Month

This month at Josh's school they have been focusing on community helpers (e.g. firemen, policemen, doctors, etc.) Josh's Abuela (Russ' mom) came and spoke to the kids about being a nurse. She works in the NICU at Cook Children's hospital. She told them all about the little bitty babies she works with (how to feed them, change them, take their blood pressure, listen to their heart etc.)


Joshua knew Abuela was coming to visit his school but it didn't really make sense to him as to why she was coming until he walked in with his class and saw her all set up to speak in front of the kids. He was so excited! He ran right up to give her a kiss. He really felt special and it was so fun seeing him so excited! Here's a picture of them after Jerry finished her little presentation. Jerry is holding one of the demonstration/practice dolls.


Josh was relieved to know that Abuela wasn't leaving to go home but would be at his house when he got home from school. He and Emory had a fun day getting to be with Abuela.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

What's New With Us

Well, not too much has gone on with us since the kid's birthday party earlier this month. They are still very much enjoying playing with all their new toys. Double birthdays means double gifts and we finally had to buy a couple toy bins just to house all the new presents.

Josh is still loving school and and is very excited about the Fall Fest celebration coming up. He gets to dress up as a Shark. This is a first for him since we spent the last two Halloweens in Spain. He can't wait, but he is a little concerned about sitting since he has a tail!


Emory stood up for the first time by herself yesterday. She's crawling everywhere but not walking yet. She's got until Thanksgiving if she wants to walk before her brother did. There are some benfits to have your children born on the same day - I get to track and compare their development to the day.


We have fianlly joined a church which we love. Feel free to check it out: http://www.prestontrail.org/. The church is about 5 years old and met in the AMC movie theatre up until last year. This January they will celebrate 1 year in their current building.


Here's some radom pictures of the kids having a good time. This last picture is of Landry Kate and Jordan Anne - Josh and Emory's cousins. They are super close in age and it's so much fun!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

More Birthday Pictures





Happy 1st and 4th Birthday!

On October 6th, Emory celebrated her 1st birthday and Joshua, his 4th. They had a lollipop birthday party (as you can see from the invitation in the blog below). They really had a fun day celebrating. Josh was very excited about turning 4 and just as excited about sharing his birthday with his sister.

We had two clebrations. Emory had her cake at our home with our immediate families. We had lunch together, opened a few gifts, and enjoyed watching Emory taste cake for the first time.






Joshua's part of the birthday was celebrated at the Clubhouse for Kids, an interactive play area where kids can shop for groceries, do crafts, play dress up, or climb a tree house or rock wall. He loved it - mostly because there was plenty of room to run around with his friends.

We decided on three cakes: One big cake that all party attenders could eat, one allery free cake for Josh and one smash cake for Emory. Aunt Camille made Emory and Joshua's birthday cakes. Later Josh said that his favorite thing about his party was his big yummy lollipop cake. Thanks Aunt Camille!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Friday, September 21, 2007

Monday, September 17, 2007

Belgian chocolate

Meme is my grandmother, my Dad's mom. She's from Belgium and her two sisters and nieces and nephews all live in Belgium. Her niece Michelle comes to visit sometimes during the summer. Here's a photo of the kids with Michelle and Meme a couple weeks ago. Josh loves to run around Meme's large yard. Emory loves to eat veggie puffs at her table. We all love having great food and cold lemonade together on a hot Texas summer day.

Michelle just returned to Belgium last week. We stayed with her when we visited there Easter of 2006. She introduced me to the most excellent chocolate I have ever tasted, which unfortunately would melt if I tried to transport it on a plane. Must go back for chocolate.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Joshua's First Day of Preschool

Today was Joshua's first day of preschool. He was very excited. His school is very close to where we live so we can walk to school together. He attends the Spanish Schoolhouse, a Spanish immersion preschool. He learned some Spanish while he attended school in Spain and we are hoping if we keep it up maybe it will stick with him.

His teachers are Senora Giovanna from Peru and Senorita Beula from Mexico.


He had a great day. According to Josh: he drew a picture of himself (soy yo), made a hand print, danced and listened to music, did not eat all his raisens, played on the playground that "was to small for me but had a cool ladder," was awakened during his rest time, oh, and he ate playdough! Everything a 3 year old loves to do. He was very excited to show me all the pictures he colored. There are about 12 kids in his class and I think he's happy to be making new friends. He said he had a really fun day.

I in turn had a really fun day too. It was so restful having time to myself while Emory took a nap and Josh was at school. It was nice too just being able to give 100% attention to Emory. She's in that really fun stage right now and it was so fun getting to enjoy all of her.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Hello

Welcome to our new blog - our little home on the web.

Since we are no longer in Spain, we decided to close down the old blog. (It's actually not closed, so feel free to visit if you like. But we won't be posting there any more.)

And since we are now settled in Frisco, Texas, we should be at a point in life where we can get back in the groove of posting more frequently. You'll enjoy that our videos now can be played directly from this page. Click on the link to the right under Go To "All Our Videos" to bring up all the videos posted here.

Finally, we'd like to say thank you. Thanks for following along for our journey the last two years - through life in Spain, an MBA, a new baby, a job hunt, and now a new phase in north Dallas and corporate America.

Here we go...

Team Browder

Monday, August 27, 2007

The Job

So, what is the position that was waiting at the end of my job search?

In May I accepted a role in marketing with General Electric Healthcare in the Information Technology division. I started in June, so I'm approaching 3 months on the job. I help market revenue cycle management software products and services to healthcare organizations under GE's Centricity brand. Basically I run marketing programs to generate brand awareness and new leads for our sales people to follow up with.

GE is huge and learning how to begin navigating the organizational structure is a challenge. I've been there just long enough to undergo a change in job title, manager, team and market focus. This keeps me on my toes trying to learn as I make my contribution to growing the business.

I have been impressed with the quality of the people I work with - their competence, expertise and creativity. Most everyone I work with is not in Dallas, so there are many people I have yet to meet in person.

I am also impressed with what I see in GE. It is one of the world's most respected companies and brands for a reason. For my part, I'm excited to be part of GE Healthcare where we are committed to growing the business around ways to improve the landscape for healthcare delivery in the US and around the world.