Chistmas Time is Here

Christmas came early to the Brown house when we received a package of SNUGGIES!!! John surprised us all before Christmas with some awesome snuggies that to my astonishment actually keep you really warm.

Of course we also decorated the tree. I really wanted a picture of the kids and I, but after 20 minutes and not one single good shot of all of us together we had to abandon ship.

The best part about Christmas this year was that my family came to us! My mom and dad came as well as my sister Meghan, her husband Jared and their baby Lucy. They all arrived on Christmas Day. It was a non-stop party and food-fest. My parents brought 10 dozen cookies with them made by these little old Italian ladies in Pittsburgh and they were all to die for. I put on a good 5 pounds of cookies that week. Of course my kids loved it and made good use of all the grandparent time.

We went on a few outings, including a trip to the Austin Zoo. They have a petting zoo there and King was in heaven. He would have stayed there all day feeding the animals.

He loved it so much that he had to get as close as humanly possible to each creature. I thought Netta liked animals, but King has her beat.

We also made the trek to Zilker Park. I love Texas weather and being able to go out in short sleeve shirts in December. Here is Meghan and my mom pushing King and Lucy.

For some reason EZ was in a really foul mood that day. I can't even remember what started it, but he was super cranky. By the park they have the Barton Springs and an area that you can wade in and dogs can swim. Everyone took off there shoes and went for a stroll in the water, but EZ wanted nothing to do with it. Gotta love his stink eye.

Here is everyone else enjoying themselves. Netta didn't even mind getting sprayed with water by the dogs.

They also have people at the park making balloon animals. There was one lady who made awesome ones that I have never seen before. Here are EZ and Netta showing off their balloons. I couldn't get over the awesome Hello Kitty.

I also loved this fish and the fishing rod. We got it for King, but unfortunately he didn't quite understand how cool it was and kept trying to take EZ's sword.

Everyone was able to stay for a week and there were plenty more adventures, but honestly I am so behind that I can't think of anymore right now, so you will have to settle for the highlights. I guess I should have taken more pictures so I could remember more!

Netta the Performer

Anyone who knows Netta knows that she is a performer. Her life is a musical, which she constantly narrates through her original songs. It was only natural that we continued her dance lessons. Now we are at the Pflugerville Rec Center and we really like it. In class she learns tap, ballet and some tumbling. She is in heaven every time we go. It worked out really nice, because two of her friends from Church are in the same class. That is especially nice for me, because us mom's have to sit around and wait for an hour while they are in the lesson so having a friend to chat with is always nice. Their big recital is in the spring, but in December they had a mini-recital in the dance studio. Netta was killing me, because I could see them practicing inside and she knew the dance, but as soon as the mom's got in their she was too busing waving and posing to remember the dance. Hopefully things will be a little better in the spring.

The day after the dance recital, Netta had a Christmas performance at her school. I just have this one lousy picture, because King was being a pill. Luckily, I was able the get video. Netta did well, but it got off to a rocky start when her teacher made Netta take off her jingle bracelet and Netta broke down in tears. Apparently, it was very important to her and luckily her teacher gave it back so she didn't spend the whole time in tears.

King will probably hate me for this later, but he is hands down my hardest baby. He is so clingy and was being insanely bad at Netta's school. I was supposed to help in the classroom that day, but he was being so bad that I had to leave. Luckily, there was a grandma there who stayed and helped. I was so drained and just done with the kids by the end of the day that I made John take them out to dinner while I sat at home by myself. John is a saint, because I made him do that again 2 nights later. I don't know why, but for some reason this week just pushed me to the edge. Luckily, John is awesome and really so are my kids, so after a little break I was feeling more like myself and of course I love having them. Oh motherhood.

Thanksgiving in Utah

This year we headed to Utah for Thanksgiving. 9 of John's 10 siblings were there so it was quite the affair. We were able to stay for a week and a half and the kids loved every minute of it. It was a little harder on the adults since our kids decided to wake up at 6 or earlier every morning and Netta had so much fun she peed her pants on multiple occasions, but despite the difficulty of traveling with kids, it was totally worth it to get to see so much of John's family. We also had the added bonus of getting to see my sister Meghan and her husband Jared and their daughter Lucy.

Austin is relatively kid friendly, but let's face it nowhere can really out do Utah in the kid friendliness category. You name it and we did: the Nickelcade, the Aquarium, the Dinosaur Museum, rollerskating and bounce houses, etc. John's family pretty much took over the bounce house place and Meghan and Jared joined us as well. King had a blast.

Lucy was a little unsure of whether or not she liked it.

I desperately tried to get a picture of Lucy and King together but they just both down right refused to cooperate. Meghan tried to wrangle them into her lap, but neither one really appreciated it.

We stayed with John's sister Misha and her family. They have a daughter Arden who is a year older than EZ and they had so much fun together. They also have a daughter named Sable who is a couple months older than King, but they didn't get a long as well. In fact King learned to say "No" while we were in Utah to keep Sable away from his toys and his personal space. Here they are at the Dinosaur Museum.

Since John's family is so big we ended up spending a lot of time in Church buildings so the kids could have space to all play together. We had Thanksgiving dinner at one and a game night as well. King and his cousin Henry were both in one the binky and frisbee action.

EZ LOVED getting to play sports with the big kids. Every time we go to Utah we feel so guilty leaving and taking our kids away from their cousins. Although, I nearly froze to death while we were there so I am not sure we will be moving anytime soon.

Of course Netta loved being with all the older girls as well. Here Netta is with her cousin Seville. I think Netta would have spent every minute with her if she could have.

On Thanksgiving Day, me, Misha, Nikki, Jacque and Meghan all ran a 5k Turkey Trot. I was excited about doing it, but a little nervous because I had done nothing to prepare. Meghan and I ended up together for most of the race and thanks to the fact that she had no plans of walking, I ran the whole race as well. I think it helped that she was pushing Lucy in a stroller and that kept her running more at my pace. Despite the freezing cold, it really was fun and to top it all off they handed out the most amazing Stephan's Candy Cane Hot Chocolate. The stuff is to die for. I have some pictures of the race on my phone, but I am so behind on the blog that if I wait to post this till I have those pictures on the computer than I will never catch up.

So the trip was a blast and we are just hoping that maybe next year some of John's family will be able to make the trek to Texas so we can see them more than once a year!

EZ's First Soccer Season

We decided to make extra good use of our YMCA membership and sign EZ up for sports this year. The fall sport was soccer and it was an interesting experience. EZ is definitely a bit of a scatterbrain on the field and in the beginning he rarely if ever touched the ball, but by the end he got much much better. His coach let him play defense, which he loved and I think is more fitting his less aggressive personality. His team as a whole got way better as the season went on. We played the same team for the first and last games of the season. The first game they creamed us like 10-2 and the last game we tied 2-2! There were definitely times as I was running around chasing Netta and King and missing most of the game/practice that I had to wonder if it was worth it, but I think seeing how much improvement he made and how excited he got I would definitely do it again. Here he is showing off his trophy.

Taking a little rest on the sideline with one of his buddies.

The last game it was really windy and John had to stand behind the goal to keep it from falling over. I promise that he normally does not hover around the field like that. There are definitely psycho parents that do, but John is not one of them. They frighten me.

Sarah and Casey were there for the last game, which was hands down EZ's best. I am glad they got to see him actually kick the ball and kind of stay focused. It was also the game I got video of so in the future it will always look like EZ had it together.

Like I said King and Netta gave me quite the run around during games (in fact I even lost Netta once and someone found her headed towards the road, which I can't write more about, because it stresses me just thinking about it), so we had to resort to stuffing King full of treats in his stroller.

Halloween Festivities

The Halloween festivities kicked off this year with our church's trunk or treat activity. One day we were looking at Target for costumes and Netta became obsessed with this pink Batgirl costume. Seeing as I was not going to spend $25 for a cheaply made costume I decided to hit up the thrift store in hopes of paying less for a still cheaply made costume. The best we could find was this black dress with a pink bat on it. It's not as cool as the original Target costume, but she didn't care so I didn't care. Oh and it cost $6, which honestly is still a rip off for how chintzy it is, but better than $25. I tried to find something for King, but just wasn't feeling inspired this year, so he just got to wear pjs with eyeballs on them.

Part of the trunk or treat included a haunted house, which John helped run, so he got to dress up in some freaky face paint. I think he kind of scared king. EZ has never watched Power Rangers, but he got a Power Ranger toy in a happy meal and decided that is was he wanted to be for Halloween. Luckily, the thrift store was able to help us out with that costume as well.

I took the classic witch route and threw on some stripped tights with a black dress and a kind of small witch hat that I actually bought for Netta last year.

The Halloween fun continued at Netta's preschool. Every year they have a costume parade and the kids march around the school so the parents can take pictures. Of course Netta loved the attention.

I tried to find Netta a headband with bats on it, to try and help out her costume, but I waited to long and this weird pigtail headband with teeny tiny bats on it was all the best could do. Again she didn't care so I didn't care. (Gotta love the girl next to her dressed as a spaceship).

For another example of my poor planning of lameness, we didn't decorate our pumpkin till the 29th. Oops. We went with our now traditional Mr. Potato Head type pumpkin and the kids had hours of fun messing with his face.

We also did the neighborhood trick or treat and ended up with way more candy than any of my kids could ever need, so of course John and I helped them out. I was tempted not to have them do the neighborhood trick or treat, because I have little to no self-control around candy and that is not good for my waistline. Oh the sacrifices we make for our children ;)

Pumpkin Patch

Of course October means pumpkin patch time. Admittedly, it still makes me miss Michigan and Uncle John's Cider Mill, but we have found a patch here that we like. Don't tell EZ we went without him. I think he would be really upset with me, but honestly it was just easier to go during the week and I have to do something to keep King and Netta entertained while he is at school. The minute we got there King made a beeline for the dog sitting by the entrance. He absolutely loves all animals and has no fear. I would say he is ever more fearless than Netta when it comes to animals. I like this picture because I am pretty sure he is having some kind of conversation with the dog and felt the need to point something out.

Once I was able to wrestle him away from the dog we headed out on a hay ride. Here is king with his hair blowing in the wind.

I love this picture of Netta because I think it captures just how very excited she was to be on the hay ride.

After the hay ride the kids were able to decorate pumpkins. As you can see King was more interested in eating the markers than decorating with them.

Netta was more interested in the pumpkin, but even her interest in that couldn't beat her interest in her lunch. The girl likes food and she can pack it away. She kind of has a reputation for mooching food off of all the kids at playgroup. And yes I do pack snacks, but she always finishes those and goes hunting for more.

My Trip to Pittsburgh

When I found out my friend Elly was going to be getting married in Pittsburgh I knew I had to be there. Mainly, because she is awesome and I love her, but also because I wanted an excuse for a weekend away from the kids. So when she got married in October, I flew up to Pittsburgh by myself and John held down the fort. Of course I stayed with my parents and it was so relaxing. It was just me and them, something that rarely if ever happens and I don't know why, but I just loved getting to visit with them by myself. A little added bonus was that my niece Grace was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while I was there. I was so glad to get to be a part of such a special day.

The wedding took place at Phipp's Conservatory and my gosh it was so beautiful. I had never been there before and I couldn't get over how amazing all the plants and flowers were. Elly looked absolutely stunning and both of them were beaming. I couldn't help but get a little choked up seeing them together.

The reception was at a delicious Italian restaurant in the Strip District that I had also never been to before so I got to experience some new Pittsburgh things on top being part of such a beautiful day.

I definitely would have stayed longer if I could, but I was also glad to come home to these adorable kids. Kid-free trips are so important, because I always come home refreshed and more appreciative of my kids.

(of course King is included as well even though he isn't in the picture. haha)