Christmas Time is Here

John had to work Christmas week this year, so we decided I should make one final pilgrimage to Pittsburgh with the kids, so they could celebrate Christmas with my family. Next year, with 3 kids, traveling by myself is just out of the question and so is the cost of airfare, so we will most likely be celebrating in Texas. I realized while we were there that I have been quite spoiled. I have spent 28 straight Christmases with my family, the most of any of my siblings. We were just lucky that John went to grad school driving distance from my parents, so we could spend half of Christmas break in Utah with his family and the other half in Pittsburgh with mine. Those were the days.

One of my hopes in going home was that the kids would get to play in snow and we were not disappointed. We seriously got dumped on while we were there. I realized that while I like having a white Christmas, I would much rather just look at it then actually have to be in it or drive in it. The kids had a blast playing in the snow. Here is Netta all bundled up. Poor girl had to wear just jeans and a fleece since we obviously have no need for winter gear here. Don't worry though she had lots of layers underneath.

Here is my dad pulling her around the backyard. Trust me it's him.

When we first started getting ready to go outside, EZ refused to put on his gear on. In true EZ fashion he had to do things on his own time and once he decided he was ready to go outside he refused to come back in. He just stood outside playing in the driveway while my dad shoveled.

EZ's favorite indoor activity was playing with the massive collection of singing snowmen that my mom has amassed from Hallmark over the years. There are many more than are shown in the picture and EZ's favorite thing was to get them all going at once. I keep thinking we should be collecting them, but then on second thought our house is loud enough as is it.

Here is a pic of Netta and I getting ready for the annual Christmas Eve open house. My parents aren't from Pittsburgh and they started having this party when I was little for all those transplants who didn't have any family in town. We don't have a fancy Christmas dinner. Instead we have the left overs from the Christmas Eve party and I love it.

On Christmas morning whoever is handing out the gifts gets the wear the Santa hat. EZ was actually handing them out, but he refused to wear the hat so Netta took over that duty.

We flew home Christmas Day and got home in enough time to have another round of presents with John at our house. The kids were so good on the flights. Everyone around was amazed and so was I. It was truly a Christmas miracle. John cracks me up because when I called and he said he was setting out the gifts he said that he didn't like wrapping so he was putting the gifts in bags. I thought he meant gift bags, but no he just meant grocery bags. Luckily the kids are too young to care. They just want to play with the toys. They couldn't care less what they are wrapped in. Here is a pic of EZ enjoying the spoils. He is sitting in his new tent from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Steve and eating candy from his stocking, while watching the Grinch, which is Aunt Rachel got for him.

It was obviously a lot warmer here when we got back, but Netta loved the snow and her winter gear so much that she insisted on wearing it around the house. I have to hide it now, because whenever she finds it she wants to wear it and that is not a good thing after she has just taken a bath. Talk about bad hat head.

Getting Ready for Christmas

So it's been almost 2 weeks since I originally uploaded these pics to the blog and now I am finally getting around to writing about them. In my defense this holiday season has been insane. We traveled for Thanksgiving, then 2 weeks later our friends the Esplins were in town for a visit and then the day they left I flew with both kids by myself to Pittsburgh to celebrate Christmas with my family. Then I came home and a week later Netta and I flew to Utah for my sister Meghan's wedding and now a week from tomorrow the whole family flies to Pittsburgh for the reception. I get tired just thinking about it.

Anyway, on the the actual post. We didn't have much time between Thanksgiving in Utah and taking off for Pittsburgh, but we tried to do as much Christmas stuff as we could. I love gingerbread houses, but EZ isn't much help with those and I am not very artistic, so this year we opted for the easier gingerbread tree. EZ really got into helping and Netta really got into the icing. Here is EZ showing off the finished product.

The whole time EZ was decorating, Netta was sucking the icing right out of the tube. That's my girl.

Of course we decorated this fabulous tree that my roommate Sarah and I bought my junior year of college, about 7 years ago. It might not be the fanciest tree, but it is the perfect size for the kids. Just tall enough so I can put some fragile ornaments on top and the kids can't reach them.

We have discovered that Netta loves ornaments. Thank goodness we stocked up on shatter-proof ones last year. Here she is escaping with one. She basically dismantled the tree on a daily basis. For some reason her favorite thing was to fill her little shopping cart with ornaments and disperse them around the house.

We also had a Christmas party at Church with dinner, singing and Santa Clause. The kids got dressed in their Christmas best. Well the best Christmas stuff I could throw together. Of course Netta has the cuter outfit. Let's face it there are just way more cute clothes for girls than boys.

I was excited that Santa made an appearance at the party, but the kids weren't so much. EZ refused to even wait in line to see him and then Netta I think naively waited in line with us and then wigged out when she realized we were going to try to maker her sit on the lap of some strange man.

Thanksgiving Festivities

This year we went to Utah for Thanksgiving. In a rare occasion, all 10 of John's siblings were there, so it was quite the party. We love being around family and having so many cousins for EZ and Netta to play with. It's just so nice to have other people entertain your kids. HaHa. Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

1. John and his brothers took turns working on renovating one of their dad's bathrooms. Part of that included removing the old floor and adding a layer of cement before laying tile. So of course I am drying my hair on the same floor as the bathroom and Netta comes up to find me. Well she also managed to find her way into the construction zone. I didn't realize what was going on until John came up and asked about Netta. Then it hit me like a brick and I ran into the bathroom to find her playing in the wet cement! She was caked in it and I can only assume she tried a little since she had a ring of cement around her mouth. Luckily, we were all able to keep our cool and laugh about it and John's brother was able to fix it. Unfortunately, in the mad rush to get her in the tub and try to salvage the floor, we did not get a picture.

2. This second highlight actually does have a picture to go along with it, but I decided not to include it for EZ's sake. We were all out at a fast food restaurant and a bunch of the kids were playing on the play scape. When we were getting ready to leave we realized that EZ was missing. I went walking out into the main part of the restaurant to look for him and all of a sudden he came walking across the restaurant in nothing but his shirt and his socks with his little butt cheeks hanging out. EZ has become very good at going to the potty on his own, but he still insists on stripping to do it and sure enough when I saw him pantless, I went into the women's restroom and found his shoes, pants and underwear all laying on the floor. I guess it's better than him peeing his pants!

3. I got to experience my first Brown family Thanksgiving, which involves a ton of people getting together at the church for an huge dinner followed by games in the gym. Eating Thanksgiving dinner on 6 huge folding tables with 60 other people is not exactly what I am used to, but the food and socializing were both awesome. You can't ask for more than that. Here are some pics of the kids enjoying playing with the family. First Netta rolling the ball with John's cousin Ben. She loved it so much and I thought it was so cute.

EZ's favorite part was his cousin Coleman teaching him how to play the Nintendo DS or whatever it is. Coleman was so patient with him and such a sweetie.

Eventually EZ played on his own. Due to his obsessive nature we will not be getting one of these, probably ever.

4. Finally, we got to take a ride on the Polar Express. There is an old train called the Heber Creeper that does themed rides throughout the year and obviously around Christmas they do the Polar Express. You get to read the book, eat treats and meet Santa. We had a whole train car rented out just for John's family, so even though the kids might have been a little young and EZ wanted nothing to do with Santa, it was still a blast cause we were with practically the whole family.

What The Kids Are Up To

So another month has flown by without me posting. I blame the child in my belly. Anyway, here is what the kids have been up to. EZ has a new found love of computer games. Since he stopped napping, this is a good way for me to keep him occupied while Netta naps, so I can kind of have some quiet time. I am amazed how quickly he has learned to use the computer. He can plug in the wireless mouse, turn on the computer, log on (no password), and open up the internet. All I have to do is type in playhousedisney.com and we are good to go. He is supposed to get off when Netta wakes up but sometimes that doesn't happen right away but luckily Netta is more than happy to just watch him play.

EZ has also been asserting his independence as of late. He is just getting too big for me to force him to do anything, like take a bath. So I have to admit I have caved and actually gotten in the bathtub with him to appease him. In this picture, Netta had just finished her bath while EZ threw a fit the whole time so I told him we could put on our bathing suits and I would get in with him. That did the trick and of course Netta couldn't be left out so she had to get back in. Sometimes I think maybe I don't do enough for my kids and then during times like these I think they are so spoiled.

Now I have been trying to assert some independence for Netta so I relax a bit more. She is getting great about feeding herself and can handle just about any meal. Yogurt has been one of the things we are working on and here is a pic of her trying to feed herself some runny yogurt, before I switched to a more custard-like type. As you can tell it went really well. I tried to do the right thing by giving her the organic Yo Baby stuff, but it is like water, so for self feeding it is back to good old Dora yogurt.

Its a ...

BOY!!!

Today I had the big ultrasound and found out we are having a boy! John and Netta were there and despite the appointment being an hour late, John was able to stay for pretty much the whole thing and Netta behaved surprisingly well. Leading up to this people would ask what I thought I was having and honestly I didn't have any strong impressions. With EZ I had dreams that he was a boy and obviously he was and with Netta the pregnancy was so different that I was sure she was a girl. Now this third pregnancy has been so insanely different that I started to think that maybe the difference between the first two was just the fact that pregnancy gets harder with each go around and had nothing to do with me having a boy and then a girl. So going into the appointment, John was sure it was a boy for some unknown reason and I could only say that so far only girls names had been coming to me so maybe it was a girl. Well John wins and I was pretty surprised, but so excited.

The Dogs are Trying to Kill Me

For actual Trick or Treat we headed over to Kim and John's house. Kim and I handed out candy while John and my John took EZ around trick or treating. We should have sent Netta with them as well because the whole time we were sitting outside handing out candy she was running all over the place and trying to sneak into open garages. The girl has no fear, which is quite the opposite of EZ. At the trunk or treat he wouldn't say trick or treat to anyone and I was afraid that Saturday wouldn't be much better. Luckily, he warmed up after a few houses and actually lasted quite a bit longer than I had expected. Here is a pic of the boys headed out.

Back in the house however, Netta showed just how brave she really is and EZ showed off just what a chicken he is. Kim and John have 4 dogs and whenever we go over there Netta squeals and chases after the dogs while EZ runs away as fast as he can. Here we have a pic of Netta being tackled by one of the dogs and loving every minute of it.

EZ however, was in rare form and when the dogs first came near him he started yelling "The dogs are trying to kill me!" Oh man I could not stop laughing. As time went on his cries were downgraded to "The dogs are trying to scare me" but nothing he said could make us forget his earlier statement. Despite the dogs trying to kill him we had a great night and no one was injured.

Trunk or Treat Surprise

Our Halloween festivities kicked off this year with a Trunk or Treat at church. Netta was baby Jaguar and EZ was Diego. Getting the Diego costume together ended up being a lot more work than I had expected. By some miracle I found him a safari vest at the thrift store on Monday and I was able to put together a pretty sweet rescue pack myself using some of those long neglected middle school home ec skills. Here is Netta doing her baby jaguar impression.

Our Diego

My sweet rescue pack

Finally the surprise of the night was John and my costumes. He went as a baker and if you ignore my lack of artistic talent you can see that I have a bun in the oven.

So yes I do actually have a bun in the oven! I am 12 weeks along with number 3 and due May 14th. That will make 3 May babies. Hey August is our anniversary month.

Pumpkin Fun

Last year we learned a valuable lesson about pumpkins and Texas: You cannot carve a pumpkin and set it out week or more before Halloween and not have it rot instantly in the heat. So this year we decided to do things differently and I found these cute Mr. Potato Head like decorations at Walmart. You just stick them in the pumpkin, no carving necessary. EZ thought it was the coolest thing ever. Here is EZ and Netta with part of the finished product.

Netta being her cute self.

The kit actually came with enough parts to make four faces so of course we had to make all four. EZ was so excited he insisted that I take his picture with each face of the pumpkin. So here is EZ and the complete finished product.

Houston Adventure

Two weeks ago we headed to Houston for a surprise welcome home party for our friend Aaron Matthews. John and I both know Aaron from BYU. He was actually in the 101 class with John that I taught where John and I first met. He also went on the study abroad with us to Egypt. After graduation Aaron joined the Marines and has spent the last 3 years going back and forth to Iraq. We love Aaron and so when we heard there was a surprise party welcoming him home we had to be there. We actually hadn't seen him since we graduated from BYU so it was great to see him and know that he is home safe and sound and most importantly done. I couldn't help but get all teary-eyed at the party while his family talked about how proud they were of him and when he described why he chose to join the Marines. He really his an amazing guy. Unfortunately while chasing the kids around at the party we weren't able to get any pictures. However before the party started we got to check out the Houston Children's Museum which is frickin awesome. I highly recommend it if you are in the area. Well and have kids of course. Here is a pic of John helping EZ pull himself up this contraption.

The really cool Halloween decorations.

I know it's a little blurry but I love this shot of Netta running. They had an awesome toddler area. Way bigger than the one at the Austin Children's Museum. Netta was in heaven.

Finally, yet another pic of Netta just being cute.

Waco Zoo

Our Church has a playgroup that meets on Mondays and EZ and Netta love it. A couple weeks ago we went to the Waco Zoo. There is technically a zoo in Austin, but really it is an animal rescue type place with not a lot of variety and no paved paths. I went last year and it was fun, but some of us were itching for a real zoo experience so we headed up to Waco. It was an awesome zoo. There were tons of animals, but it was a manageable size and we were able to do the whole thing before my kids started getting cranky. I guess the only downside was that we drove 3 hours round trip and it took less than 3 hours to see all the animals. So not a trip I would make regularly, but it was fun and luckily I had Brittany and her son in the car with us to keep me company. Here is a pic of Netta in the aquarium area. She LOVES fish and just kept running around squealing.

I love this pictures because it just shows how desperate she was to get out of the stroller and get at the animals.

EZ was having fun but for some reason was not too keen on getting his picture taken. I think its because I was making him slow down so I could take it and he was ready to run.

Finally our failed attempt at a family pic. I love that Netta can walk but sometimes mobility is so overrated.

Netta's Dreadlock

Netta has this cute/nasty habit of twirling her hair and sucking her thumb at the same time. It really is cute until she twirls her hair into a dreadlock like she did a couple weeks ago and then again a couple days ago. She knots her hair on a daily basis and I can get those out no problem, but these dreadlocks end in her losing quite a bit of hair and then I have to trim her bangs to even it all out. The best was the other day while we were driving to the zoo so she twisted her hair so tight that her finger got stuck in it and it was cutting off the circulation. Luckily my friend Brittany was in the car with me and could get it out, because I was driving on the highway and couldn't reach her to save her finger and stop her from freaking out. When Netta let's me I usually pull her hair up in a little ponytail, which helps prevents knots, but normally she won't let me so it looks like this could be a regular occurrence.

Oh EZ

I just realized that until my Girls' Weekend post I had gone a month without posting. I really need to get back on top of things. Anyway, I am sure I am going to have tons of posts titled "Oh EZ" cause this kid does the goofiest stuff. Lately he has become obsessed with these boots he found at Marshalls. As soon has he walked in the store he saw them and before I even realized he had taken off his flip flops and put the boots on. They are made out of the croc material and I go back and forth between whether I think they are funky in a kind of cool way or just ugly. He insisted on wearing them the whole time we were in the store and to my relief they were only $4 so it was ok that I pretty much had to buy them. The best part is that he likes to wear them with shorts and to school. I always send flip flops with him, because I am pretty sure he would have a hard time running around during PE time in these bad boys.

He also is obsessed now with playing games on the computer. Basically EZ just likes to obsess over things. The other day he was so mad at me for making him stop playing that he laid on the floor and screamed and cried until eventually he just passed out. When I realized the crying had stopped (I was in other room ignoring his ridiculous behavior and playing with Netta) I went to check on him and found him asleep like this. I just can not see how that can possibly be comfortable, but I guess it works for him.

Girls' Weekend

I have been wanting a weekend away from the kiddies for quite some time and about two weeks ago I finally got one. The original plan was to meet my sister in DC for a conference she is attending, but then the dates didn't work out and then they changed the location so it isn't even in DC. She suggested I come to Utah instead where 3 of my 4 sisters are. I wasn't super stoked about going to Utah since we go there all the time to see family and I wasn't particularly all that excited about hanging out with my sisters and their significant others while I was flying solo, so I said the only way I would come is if all the girls could just go away somewhere for the weekend. Everyone agreed and we ended up spending 2 nights in Park City. It was so awesome. First of all traveling by yourself is so easy I could hardly believe it. I haven't flown without a child in tow since before EZ was born so it's been a while. I couldn't believe how much reading I got done. I would almost say it was boring, but I am definitely not going to complain. I got in on a Thursday night and then Friday once everyone was done with school and work we headed up to Park City. That night we went out to dinner and then just hung out in the hot tub. Then Saturday we hit up Olympic Park, which was amazing. I can't believe I never went up there while I lived there. We got to see some freestyle aerialists practicing in the pool, which was awesome . . .

and then we took 2 spins on the Alpine Slide, this huge luge like track that winds down the mountain with you riding on these little metal toboggans. I still can't get over how much fun it was. I really felt like a kid and kind of acted like one when I almost ran Katie over for going too slow. Here is a pic of my 3 lovely sisters ready to ride.

And here is a pic of me ready to ride. Unfortunately this was not the best self portrait and you can't even tell I am riding on the toboggan. There were other pictures of me where you can see that I am actually on the ride, but unfortunately each of the toboggans had a pole in between your legs to break with and for some reason every time someone took a picture of me riding I was holding on real tight to the pole and let's just say it looked perverse.

After that we hit up the Outlets. It is always a pleasure to shop kid free and I actually bought myself a bunch of stuff, which is a rarity. That night we had some awesome pizza and stayed up late talking and then slept in! It was so much fun to spend time with my sisters and just get to enjoy each other and not have to worry about any spouses or kids. We will definitely have to keep this up in the future and get my mom and sister Rachel on board.

Poor Netta

After all my talk about how hot it is and how my kids are never fully clothed, it may seem strange that I dressed Netta in this pretty thick tights for church. Well that is because of this . . .

Poor Netta was the first person in our house to fall victim to a notorious fire ant attack. We have all had a bite here or there, but nothing like this. It's been so hot that we haven't spent much time in the backyard, but just this past week it has started to cool off enough at night that I let the kids play on the back patio on Saturday. Netta has never ventured into the grass before, so I thought I was safe letting them play outside while I did some things in the kitchen. Well it didn't occur to me that the recent storm had blown one of her favorite toys into the grass and that she would go for it. I just heard this crying coming from outside and there was Netta standing in the middle of the yard with fire ants all over her legs. I felt so bad. Of course I got them off as quickly as I could, but it was too late. Luckily, the bites don't seem to bother her like they would an older child or adult. She doesn't even seem to notice them. It's just gross because they fill with puss and look like huge zits. The pictures don't truly convey how sick they look. My poor baby has deformed legs so she had to wear tights to Church and I have been putting her in pants as well. First because the bites are ugly and second because I don't want them to get scratched open by her crawling around. So as soon as John gets home, which is tonight thank goodness, he gets to tackle the ant problem in the back yard. Yippy.