One of Many Browns

Netta the Performer

2012-01-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-02T18:20:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

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)

Austin City Limits

2011-12-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

Austin City Limits is a 3 day music festival and it is out of control. There are so many bands and so many people. Last year John's nephew Winston came to write for the music blog he works for and John got to go with him. This year I didn't want left out of all the fun so John and I both got 3-day passes and then Winston came and John's other nephew Parker and then a guy named Chris that no one had ever actually met in person, but works for the same blog as Winston, came as well. So we had a full house. I was really excited about getting to go this year, but I quickly learned that I am not as into music or concerts as I used to be. I am just not hip and I am fine with that. They moved the concert up to September from October and it was so frickin hot and there was just way too many sweaty people who kept touching me and it was just gross. Plus parking is a beast and you have to walk forever to get to and from the concert and on Saturday we took the kids in the morning so I walked with them, then after a couple hours walked back to the car and drove them home, set them up with a babysitter, drove back to the concert and made the hike again. I get tired again just thinking about it. Oh and I learned that I prefer the radio version of many songs, because I am not particulary fond of the F word. The plus side is that the kids get in for free and there are a ton of activities for them. Next year I think I will save a ton of money on tickets and babysitters by buying just a one day pass for me and taking the kids that day. John is apparently hipper than I am and loved every minute of it and will most likely keep getting 3 day passes as long as we live here. Anyway, here are some pics starting with a rare photo of John and I together, since one of us is usually behind the camera.

They give away a lot of freebies and by far the most popular with my kids were the sunglasses.

The designated kids' area is called Austin Kiddie Limits and it is awesome. They have different areas set up for playing instruments, getting tattoos, doing crafts and all kinds of good stuff. They also have a stage set up where performers can come and do kid friendly acts. They had this 12 year-old boy there singing the blues and playing the guitar. I have never seen anything like it in my life. People with talent like that just blow my mind. Anyway, here are some pics of the kids enjoying all the great activities. First, Netta showing off her airbrush tattoo.

Here is EZ painting his magnet. It looks like he is blowing on the paint, but really he is just yelling NO at King is who is attempting to steal his magnet.

There were a couple areas for playing instruments and one of those was a drum circle. All three kids got really into it.

EZ was so focused on drumming and cowbell that he refused to smile. I think he would have stayed there all day.

I love this one of King and John. He really looks up to his rockin' dad.

One of the other areas was for spraying painting your hair. EZ wanted nothing to do with it, but Netta was all over it. Of course she had to go with pink.

The other instrument area was set up by Austin School of Rock and the kids could play all the typical rock band instruments. Netta basically spent the whole time on the mic. The girl spends most of the day singing made up songs so that was appropriate. EZ decided to give everything a try, but again if he was playing he refused to smile. He takes his music seriously.

While this was not exactly the experience I was hoping for, getting to take the kids there was awesome and this definitely will be a Brown family tradition.

Weekend One of Visitors

2011-12-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

September we had a ton of visitors and we loved every second of it. The first weekend of visitors was kicked off with another one of my dad's work trip add-ons. Have I mentioned that I love these and they are all kinds of awesome? We decided one morning to take the kids to Zilker Park and go for a health walk, but of course we got there and one of the tires on our stroller was completely shot. Not flat, but more like exploded. So instead we played on the playground and rode the mini-train, the Zilker Zephyr. I kind of felt bad for Sarah and Casey, because I am not sure how entertaining it was for them, but Casey had a super sweet camera with him that he was using for a photography class and he was able to get some good pics for one of his assignments. These following two are gems of Netta. I love how perfectly he caught her with her hair pulling her lip.

In this one she is just adorable and showing off how she uses her good looks to get away with murder.

That Sunday morning my dad left but then John's cousins David and Colt came to visit. The older gentlemen is actually John's first cousin, which is a little weird to me, but that is what happens when your dad is from a huge family and then he has a huge family and you are at the tail end. I am not sure how exactly Colt is related to John. I really can't keep John's family straight. Anyway, they were in town for the BYU/UT came. It was not pretty for BYU. But luckily, Colt is a diehard UT fan, which is why David brought him, and so he was in heaven. He was in UT gear from head to toe. You can't see but I am pretty sure he had UT sneakers on as well.

They were only able to visit for a short while that day, but it was still so great to see them. It is always hard to say bye to visitors, but luckily the next weekend we had more family coming for Austin City Limits, which helps, but that is for another post.

Back to School

2011-12-10T21:13:00.000-08:00

This year was a big school year for all of us. EZ started kindergarten. Netta started preschool and I went back to teaching Arabic at Austin Community College. We were really excited for EZ to start his Spanish immersion program, but I was also super stressed. I cried a couple of times just thinking about EZ being at school all day and me having no control over what he was doing. I never thought I would be that mom. In fact, I had always said how I couldn't wait for EZ to start kinder so I could have less kids at home and that was true, but for some reason the reality finally set in and I was struggling for a while. Of course it took about 2 days of EZ being at school for me to get over it. He LOVES his program and I can already tell his is learning a ton. The only downside is that we have to drive him to another school in the district and pick up and drop of can be a logistical nightmare. So a move closer to his school may be in our future. Oh that and elementary school starts at 7:40 here, which I had never heard of and it is killing me. Anyway, here he is beaming and ready to go on the first day.

Netta also started preschool, but there was no stressed involved in that because she has been begging to go for the last year and I have no problem with someone else entertaining her for a couple hours twice a week. Plus she is going to EZ's preschool and we know that they do a great job.

I started back to school as well and that ended up being way more stressful than I thought it would be. First they hired me and then called me a week later and told me that I am not qualified to teach. I was really confused, because why would they have interviewed me? But it turns out they shouldn't have. The accrediting board for ACC says that a language teacher has to basically have a masters in the language and since my masters is in language teaching with an emphasis in Arabic they say I need to go back to school and take more graduate level Arabic classes, which is just not going to happen. So I get to teach this semester and that is it. Then the authors of the book had to go and write a new addition, which I received on the Friday before classes started. The last time they wrote a new addition the changes were minor, but this time they completely revamped it and I had to spent all weekend completely redoing my syllabus and schedule. And I probably won't ever even teach this class again. Ugh I was not a happy camper and it did not help that I was also freaking out about EZ. So it was a stressful start, but once things got rolling everything worked out fine and I am excited about getting to teach again.

Swim Lessons

2011-12-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

We decided to enroll both kids in swim lessons this summer. We decided to wait til later in the summer in hopes that EZ would get a chance to warm up to swimming again. Seriously at the beginning of the summer I thought he and Netta would be in the same level, but after just a couple weeks of going to the pool he all of a sudden decided that he loved swimming and he wanted to try to swim on his own. This was a HUGE breakthrough for him. I just kept saying "Who is this child?" I guess it's true that you can't force kids to do things but they will usually come around when they are ready. He had a blast at swim lessons and he was not in the same level as Netta. His teacher was awesome and really helped him a lot. The only problem was that they messed up our sign up and registered him for the 2 week session after Netta. I was so irritated. Of course the session I actually signed him up for was full and the best they could do was have him go in the time slot after Netta which meant sitting for around an hour and half in the hot muggy indoor pool and not getting to work out as I had planned. While I was still irritated in the end it was ok because EZ's new session hardly had any kids and he was able to get a lot of one on one attention.

Netta actually pulled a bit of a reversal on us and acted really scared at her lessons and for the first little while wouldn't do the basic bubble blowing and what not. Again I was thinking "Who is this child?" Luckily, she got over it and started swimming around the pool with floaties on.

The day I decided to take pictures they had some water safety lesson and the kids got to practice pulling each other to the side with a noodle. I am not sure why they think a 3 year old could save another 3 year old, but the kids did have fun and I guess it never hurts to teach them young.

Cousin Sarah is in the House

2011-09-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am committing myself to catching up on the blog before Christmas and I have a ton of posts and just two weeks to go so I better get crackin. After my trip to Pittsburgh my niece Sarah flew back with us to Texas. It was SO awesome to have help on that flight. The only annoying part was that we weren't on Southwest and it was hard to get seats together, but in the end some nice people made it happen for us. Words cannot express how nice it was to have an older child (12 years old to be exact) in the house to help me out. I seriously need an older child in my life. There were one or two moments when she acted kind of weird and crotchety like a normal preteen but really she was pretty much awesome to have around.

One sweet thing we did was the yearly "dress up like a cow to get free food at Chick-fil-A." I mean who doesn't love free food. My sister Sarah and her husband Casey joined us as well. The kids had a blast although Sarah being that preteen did not want her picture taken and seemed concerned that someone might see her. (Not like she knows anyone here).

We also made a trip to the mall for the opening of the Hello Kitty store. Man that is some overpriced crap, but Netta was in absolute heaven. The best part was that they advertised that there were free activities but once you got in there it turns out to get a balloon and have your face painted cost extra. Oh they always get you. I am normally not a sucker but for how excited Netta was we had to let her do it.

This next pic is not so much an activity but a discovery that we made while Sarah was here. That is that King LOVES pasta and looks great eating it!

Sarah was here for two weeks and when it was time to go we sent her off with a nice karaoke party including Sarah and Casey and their dog Neville.

My kids love to play Lips on the XBOX and King even wanted in on the action.

This is the second time one of my sister's kids have come to visit and I have loved it both times. Good thing she has 5 girls so we can have lots of visitors!

Pittsburgh Part 3: 4th of July

2011-09-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

We were able to spend 4th of July at my sister Rachel's house and it was awesome. You could see the city fireworks from her back porch, which made life so much easier. EZ hates loud noises so I hadn't planned on actually taking them to see the fireworks, so I was really excited when we realized that we could clearly see the fireworks from her house, but that they were far enough away that they weren't loud. Before the fireworks the kids had a blast playing together. They started out with a slip n slide which was a huge success.

They also did some swimming in a pool that Rachel bought earlier in the week. EZ is so crazy because all week long he refused to get in the pool, but finally today he agreed to get in as long as no one splashed him. (Of course he could splash them all he wanted).

EZ really surprised me when all of a sudden I realized that the girls were dumping buckets of water on his head and he was loving it. I have no idea what came over him. That kid is so crazy sometimes.

While EZ and Netta were having fun with their cousins, King was busy harassing their dog. He followed Chloe around all night long. He has an obsession with dogs and poor Chloe didn't get a minute of peace the whole time we were in Pittsburgh.

After all the water fun we got dried up and grilled up a great dinner.

After dinner we did one of my children's favorite activities, roasting marshmallows! Netta was especially fond of the humongous marshmallows my sister had and who can blame her?!

We flew home 2 days later and I was not ready. Not because I didn't want to fly, but because I just wasn't ready to leave my family. The two weeks went by really fast and the kids were having so much fun with their cousins that I felt guilty leaving. We missed John, but in all honesty I could have stayed another week. Last year, when King was a newborn and I was at my parents' house for 2 weeks without John it got to be miserable, but this time with the kids all older it really was awesome and I was sad to leave. Luckily, my niece Sarah came back to Texas with us , but that is for another post.

Pittsburgh Part 2: Kennywood

2011-09-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

No trip to Pittsburgh would be complete without a trip to Kennywood. Luckily there was a special deal going on so we could afford to go. Amusements parks will bankrupt you. Anyway, we had such a blast. Netta of course we her usual daring self and was ready to go the minute we got there. I love that all the girls in the picture flocked to the pink motorcycles even though it meant they had to sit by strangers.

I am sure I have said this before, but EZ has really grown up this year and that was evident when he ran right on to every single ride without any hesitation. Last year it literally took hours before he would ride anything and this time he rode it all including the little roller coaster. I can't believe I could get teary-eyed over amusement park rides, but it really does make me so proud.

King started out the day hanging out with Grandma in the stroller because we figured his insane clinginess to me would make it impossible for him to be handed off to one of the employees to ride a ride on his own.

Well man were we wrong. I rode a few rides with him and then he took off and rode a bunch on his own. The boy has no fear just like Netta.

My sister and her kids were there as well and my parents kindly watched my kiddos so I could ride some rides with the adults/older kids. I know I am getting old and having kids has taken it's toll, because we rode my favorite ride, formerly known as "The Enterprise" and it made me a bit nauseous and I almost peed my pants. Despite that it was still a blast and I loved watching my kids have to much fun.

Pittsburgh Part 1: Hanging with the Fam

2011-09-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

John is in the Young Men's President at church which means he works a lot with the youth and that he got to go to scout camp this year. Since he was going be M.I.A. for a week at the end of June, I decided that I would go visit my parents with the kids. This meant flying across the country by myself with all 3 kids. I was nervous to say the least. In fact I think I felt like I was going to throw up for the whole week before we left. It wasn't the easiest trip ever and I definitely got frustrated from time to time, but I never had to threaten my kids with their lives and there were no crazy stories to report so I would say it was a success. Albeit a success that I do not intend to repeat anytime soon. We stayed in Pittsburgh for 2 weeks and it was pretty awesome. When we first got their my dad was really excited because their was a zeppelin at the airport so of course we had to go check it out.

I think some of the significance of it being an actual zeppelin was lost on the kids, but they still thought it was really cool. They also loved getting to play with their cousins. My sister and her 5 girls live 10 minutes down the road and my kids were in heaven. One of their favorite things to do was to have sleep overs. They got really into it and gathered together every blanket, pillow and stuffed animal they could find.

We also got a visit from my Grandpa and my Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy. I was so grateful that they made the trip down. We don't get to see them very often and my parents don't have a car that could have fit all of us for a weekend trip to Rochester so them coming was just awesome. My kids had a blast with them, but unfortunately they all wigged out when I said it was time to take a picture, but I promise they were happy before this pic. The best part was that the only way we could get King to calm down was to let him hold my brother-in-law's Dr. Pepper bottle. Like father like son.

Finally I had to include a picture of my mom and her twin Netta. Everyone says that Netta looks like me, which is true, but sometimes I think she looks even more like my mom.

Last But Not Least

2011-07-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

EZ turned 5 on May 26. He was so excited about his party and I was so excited to be done with birthday parties. Having all the kids' birthdays in May is kind of cool and kind of exhausting. It was an extra special party because my parents came into town, which is the best present ever. EZ's party had a super hero theme. Here he is with his Batman cake thanks to the local grocery store HEB.

The best part of the Batman cake was the bright blue icing and what it did to all the kids' faces.

Part of the party was water games in the backyard. We don't have any pictures because EZ kind of wigged out and didn't want anyone getting him wet. Yeah he can be a pill when it comes to splashing. Of course he loves to squirt and splash other people, but the minute someone gets him it is all over. I should have known it would be a bad idea. Luckily, all the other kids had a great time and we had other things to do like this pinata.

Just so you know I thought we were going to hang it but John volunteered to hold it. No one made him do it. He is just crazy and lucky because amazingly had did not get hit in the family jewels by any of the kids or adults for that matter. The pinata was not too keen on breaking so in the end all the adults had to take a swing as well. Here is my dad. . .

. . .and Uncle Casey. . .

. . .and finally John was able to finish it off.

Despite the water debacle, if you ask EZ about his party he will say that he loved it so that is all that matters. Plus Kung Fu Panda 2 came out that day and we all went to see it. EZ was so excited. He had a Kung Fu Panda party for his 3rd birthday and has been obsessed ever since. Between party, movie and grandparents I would have to say that was a pretty awesome birthday.

Biker Gang

2011-07-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

We kind of went with a theme for birthday presents this year and everyone got bikes. I think we are a bit behind the ball with EZ on this one, but he is obsessed with his bike so hopefully he can make up for lost time. We took the kids to an elementary school so they could ride around on the basketball court. Don't worry we did get them helmets, but just forgot to bring them this first time. We figured no big deal this once and of course EZ biffed it pretty hard. Definitely won't forget the helmets anymore.

I really wanted to get a bike for King, but it was hard to find one for his age. Any one I saw that had a push handle didn't have a seat belt and King wouldn't be able to keep himself on. Finally, after much perseverance I found this one and it has been great.

Netta loves her bike as well. She is taking a little longer to catch on and still needs a push now and them, but she is getting there. It was kind of windy that day hence she is holding her hair out of her face for the picture.

I loved watching all three of them ride around. They were all so excited and I think we are going to have a lot of fun with these bikes.

EZ's Graduation

2011-07-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Back on July 8th I said I was going to make the most of my niece being here to take time and update the blog. Whoops it is now July 18th and I am just getting around to writing another post. Oh well. So back in May EZ graduated from preschool. You may think it's silly to have a preschool graduation and I would have agreed, but then I went to it and got all teary-eyed and proud of my baby boy so I guess it was pretty cool after all. They had each class wear different colored t-shirts and as they walked down the aisle to the front they were playing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I have no idea why but for some reason that song and watching EZ just got the tears flowing.

I think part of the reason I got so emotional was that literally as I was sitting waiting for the graduation to start I got a text from my friend letting my know that EZ had gotten into the Spanish immersion kindergarten that we had been praying he would get into. We found out about the program in April and as soon as we did we knew we wanted EZ in. It is part of our school district but there is only one class offered at one elementary school. There is a lottery for spots and when you sign up to be in it you have to commit to keeping your child in the program for 6 years. Right before the lottery I found out that there were around 22 kids applying and only 10 spots and by some miracle EZ got one. And I mean miracle because we had 3 other friends apply and none of them were selected.

Anyway, during the graduation they gave out awards to each student and EZ was given the "funny bone" award, which of course we agree with. In the program they listed what each child wants to be when they grow up and EZ said he wants to be a "boxing player". We can thank the Wii for that. I tried to get a picture of EZ's class afterwards and as you can see it was very hard to get a good picture. Of course hardly any one was looking at the camera and some kids were even crying. So this one is as good as it gets.

In the pictures EZ is standing next to one of his best friends Bradley. We love Bradley's family. I have become good friends with his mom Maggie and Netta loves his little brother Sammy. As soon as Netta found out we were going to EZ's school she insisted on bringing her back pack.

They all have a blast together. I think King really wanted in on the action.

Finally, I have to say how much I loved EZ's teacher Ms. Laura. She was so kind to EZ and at the end of the year she sent home a report card with a personal letter about EZ which was so sweet that it had me in tears as well. Here is a picture of EZ with his teacher and his friend Emme. Apparently, he was really excited about having his picture taken.

Netta's Turn

2011-06-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

I am so far behind on blogging that it is kind of pathetic. Netta's birthday was on May 9th, I uploaded these pictures on June 5th and now it is July 8th and I am finally writing this post. My niece Sarah is here visiting and I am going to make the most of her ability to entertain my kids and try and catch up. So yeah Netta turned 3 this year. She has an obsession with all things Hello Kitty so that was the theme of her party. I was just going to have my sister over and keep it really simple, but then I caved and decided to let her have a party with some friends. We still kept it low key and just had a couple of her friends and their families over for pizza and cupcakes.

The cake turned out awesome and Netta loved it, so thank you Target. I keep thinking one day I will try and do the cake myself, but I just can't work up the will yet. After the stress of EZ's cupcakes for his 3rd birthday I just haven't had the desire to make them again. The colors on the cake were really bright and required copious amounts of food coloring, which did a number on everyone's bowel movements for the next week. ;)

Netta got a lot of great presents, including this tutu that my sister Sarah made for her. She was so excited to be getting gifts that her whole body shook every time she got to open one. It was awesome.

Even though having another party added to the stress of May, Netta is so stinkin cute that I just had to do it.

King's Big Day

2011-05-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

We did it! We made it to 1 year old. King's birthday was on my 4th and he is growing like a weed. He is 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. Taking after his daddy. As far as his birthday goes we kept it simple with just family. King had a lot of fun and a lot of help opening the presents.

As soon as we put the cake in front of him he tore into it. He was by far the messiest of all the kids with their first cakes.

It was like Netta knew that he was beating her in the messy category and she refused to let him have all the glory so she decided to give herself a bath with frosting. EZ of course wanted nothing to do with the mess.

One of King's presents was this awesome trike from his grandma and grandpa. There is going to be a bike theme this year for all the birthdays so watch out for more pics of that later.

Random Fun

2011-05-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

One day earlier in May we were just playing around and got some fun pictures. King started pulling up on furniture about a month ago, so at around 11 months old, and I love it cause he can get in my face while I am sitting on the floor taking pictures and you end up with ones like this:

(King is still setting records at our house with his mobility and I am guessing he will be walking around 13 months). That day we also got a package in the mail which included a ton of bubble wrap, which of course we promptly popped and then we were left with these really long pieces of plastic that the kids then wore as belts. Why I don't know, but again it made for some fun pictures.

Easter Extravaganza

2011-05-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

Easter was quite the event this year with 3 different celebrations. First we had an egg hunt at the Church that runs EZ's preschool. Sadly the pictures are on my phone and I am so behind on blogging that I am not going to take the time to upload them, but it was really fun. There were an insane amount of eggs. Oh and one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed happened thanks to that egg hunt. While we were there I saw Netta pick up this little white egg with black spots and I thought "that is probably a real egg" so I told her to put it back on the ground. Well later that day EZ came to me saying he "ate something yuck" and I looked in his hand and saw remnants of that little white and black shell, so I told him to spit it out and sure enough he spit out a bunch of shell and what was clearly an egg yolk. I guess Netta didn't put it back on the ground after all!

The next week our Church put on an awesome egg hunt/party. There was face painting, cookie decorating and a cake walk as well. The whole time I couldn't believe how they had pulled together such an amazing party with just a bunch of people volunteering to bring supplies and help run the activities. The face painting was a huge hit with my kids. Netta kept going back for more.

EZ was a content to just have one cheek done.

My dad was actually able to join us thanks to one of his work trips and of course that made it all the better. Uncle Casey and Aunt Sarah also joined us for some egg dying. After that EZ, Netta and Casey put their own rock band together. Gotta love the capes!

My dad had to leave Easter morning, but there was enough time for him to watch the kids find their baskets. In honor of my grandma, who used to do an egg hunt for us and put random things like underwear and tights in the eggs, EZ and Netta each got to hunt for some special eggs filled with underwear. EZ thought it was the funniest thing. He just couldn't believe that the Easter bunny would fill a bunch of eggs with underwear!

Diva Dash

2011-05-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Back in February I was reading Shape magazine and stumbled upon an ad for the first annual Diva Dash in Austin to be held in April. It is a 5k with obstacles every half mile or so and it is to raise money for a charity that promotes self esteem building for girls. Sarah is a runner and I am not, but I thought it would be fun to train for something to help get rid of some of the baby weight and it would be awesome to run it with my sister. I did my best to prepare at the gym and all and all I think we did a pretty good job. They didn't do a good job tracking times but we are guessing we came in at around 39 minutes. Sarah probably could have finished faster, but she was kind enough to hang around for me. The time is nothing stellar, but it is faster than I was expecting. There were moments when I got a little depressed thinking about how I ran cross country in high school and how slow I am now, but seeing as how I haven't actually run a 5k in like 8 years I think it was pretty good. It was hotter than Hades, which was something I was not prepared for after doing most of my training in the gym and I would definitely not sign up to run any later in the year than April, but it was actually kind of fun and at least helped build my self esteem a bit. That and we got free stuff. haha. Here is a pic, which as you can probably guess by our red faces, was taken after we finished the race.

Trying to be Homemakey

2011-05-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

This St. Patrick's Day, which yes was like a month and a half ago, I decided to be all homemakey and do something creative with the kids. I saw the cutest rainbow cupcakes online and of course they said they were super easy so I decided to give em a whirl. While not quite as super easy as they made it sound, they actually turned out looking and tasting pretty good. Amazingly however, Netta the girl who eats everything wanted nothing to do with them. She took one bite and said "Too yuck" and made this face like she was going to throw up.

EZ loved them and as you can see King loved them as well.

Netta finally agreed to eat one when I put a bunch of whipped cream on top and then of course she just licked off all the whipped cream. I have always loved cake so this obsession with only eating the icing and none of the cake is mind boggling. Especially since Netta seriously eats anything and everything and is constantly stealing food from other kids. I just can't believe she won't eat cake.

Speich is in the House

2011-03-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends from high school Elly Speicher was able to come visit mid-March and it was awesome! She had a conference to go to in Houston and just extended her stay over the weekend so she could come up and visit. The last time I saw Elly was last summer when I was staying in Pittsburgh without John after just having King. It was fun then, but I think the craziness of my life may at that time may have frightened her away from ever wanting to have kids. Heck it frightened me. Luckily, this time around things were not so crazy and she had fun with the kids and they loved her. In fact Netta will still talk about her friend Elly. John was great and took care of the kids so we could do as much as possible while she was here. In fact I was able to be kidless pretty much all day Saturday, which is by far the most I have been since King was born. Of course we ate and ate and ate and shopped and shopped. We also got to see a movie at Alamo Drafthouse, where you can order food and eat it during the movie. John has been there a couple times, but I never have and it was awesome. We also toured the state capitol, which I have been wanting to do for while. Yes it's nerdy and it means we are old, but we liked it. (I kind of skipped a post where I turned 30, but I did in February and I think it is starting to show). It was a bummer when she had to leave, but as it turns out this conference happens in Houston every year so for as long as she is at that job we should be able to get together! Here is a pic of Elly and I thanks to our photographer EZ.

Texas Day

2011-03-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

To say that Texans are proud of their state would be a huge understatement. On March 10th, EZ's preschool celebrated Texas Day with stories about cowboys, pony rides, making a book about Texas and a picnic lunch for the whole family. I am pretty sure we never celebrated Pennsylvania day. I volunteered to help out EZ's class and Netta was so excited when she found out that she got to go to school. The girl couldn't be more ready and she jumped right in and did everything the class did. (EZ is sitting to her right in the orange and white plain with the huge cowboy hat from when I was Jesse for Halloween). We have already registered Netta for next year and I am just as excited for her to go as she is.

John was able to join us for lunch and we attempted to get a picture of him with the kids, but as usual not everyone was cooperative.

EZ really loves to take pictures and he took this one of me and Netta. I have finally again reached the point where I don't mind having my picture taken. I decided back in January to really crack down on my diet and it has helped a lot. Now I just need to ween King so I can really cut the calories.

EZ also took this picture of his friend Emme. She often proclaims that she wants to marry him and got in trouble for kissing him on the lips during music class. EZ really loves to play with her, but he has also said that he is marrying a girl named Ashley from his class. I am blown away by how much EZ has changed since he turned 4. Last year he couldn't even name the kids in his preschool class and now he is ready to get married! I would say that he has made quite a leap in his social development.

King Brown

2011-03-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

In February King had his 9 month check up. He is still holding onto his title of heaviest baby. Amazingly, despite his weight disadvantage, he also wins the award for earliest crawler. The baby books will tell you babies crawl between 6 and 9 months, well neither EZ nor Netta pulled that off. EZ army crawled at 10 months and then didn't crawl on his hands and knees till a year. Netta was almost 11 months before she got her butt moving at all. King however managed to army crawl a week before he turned 9 months, making him our earliest army crawler and then he even managed to crawl on his hands and knees at 10 months making him our earliest actual crawler. We are very proud. He just desperately wants to keep up with all the fun he sees EZ and Netta having. Now the test is to see if he walks earlier. EZ and Netta both walked around 15 months, which shouldn't be hard to beat.

Other updates on King are that he likes to lay around like this:

We don't know why but for some reason he just loves to lounge on his side and hold his leg up. He also still clings to me like it's no body's business. He is my hip baby and I get comments all the time that he is so pleasant, but that is mainly because I am holding him when people tell me that. In fact, last night he was up coughing in the middle of the night and I was holding him and John reached out to him and he repeatedly pushed John's hands away. Not to say that he doesn't love John, but if I am around he just loves me more. Finally, our the last update is just that King is a stud and we have a picture to prove it.

Here We Go Steelers Kind Of

2011-03-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Steelers were in the Super Bowl so of course we had to have some kind of get together. In fact we had two. First we went to my friend Kim's house, who is also from Pittsburgh, and then we had my sister Sarah and her husband Casey over. Alas the Steelers didn't win, but we got to make the most of this opportunity to show off our Steelers apparel. Try and ignore the duct tape that EZ felt the need to wear. His shirt says "I had no choice but to be a Steelers fan" on the back, which is so true since Grandma Sharon makes sure the kids know where their roots are and that they have to clothing to prove it. EZ so closely associates the Steelers and my mom that when he saw Sarah's shirt he immediately asked "Did Grandma Sharon get you that?" Of course she did. But notice that I am not in the picture, because I have no Steelers apparel. What is up with that Grandma Sharon? ;)

(I must add that I think my kids are adorable).

SNOW!!!

2011-03-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

I was bummed that we weren't able to travel this year for Thanksgiving or Christmas because A: we wouldn't get to see family and B: the kids wouldn't get to see any snow, something that Netta asks for regularly. Well amazingly on February 4th we actually got snow! The kids wanted to play in it the minute they got up, but it was too cold so I said that they had to wait till after I took King to his doctor's appointment at 10am. Some of my friends warned me to call the doctor's office to make sure they were still having appointments, which I thought was ridiculous because there was hardly any snow, but some offices did close. King still had his appointment, but there was hardly anyone there and the staff was slowly trickling in. People were so afraid to drive here, which again I thought was ridiculous, but I have to admit while I was driving to the appointment I got a little worried. There wasn't very much snow, but since it rarely snows here they do NOTHING to clean the roads and the drive turned out to be a bit treacherous. I just kept thinking how ironic it would be if I got in an accident on my way to my baby's well-baby check up. The sun came out while we were in the appointment and when we came out at 11 a lot of the snow had melted. I just thought "Crap! I have to hurry home so my kids can play in the snow before it is gone". It would have been really sad if I had made them wait and then it all melted. Luckily, when I got home there was still some in the back yard. Here are some pics of the kids playing. I realize they look like homeless people with their mish mash of winter clothes, but that is not something I felt like investing in this year for 20 minutes of winter weather.

Girls' Weekend

2011-03-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Way back in January we had a girls' weekend. My mom and all my sisters came to town and it was a blast. We got a hotel in Austin and enjoyed our time shopping, watching movies, eating and hot tubbing. The weather, which is normally gorgeous, was of course rainy just for this weekend, so we didn't get to do everything we might have liked, but we still had a really great time together. Sadly, I don't actually have any pictures of us ladies. Probably because we all are hard on ourselves and hate pictures. My sister Meghan and I both had our babies in tow. Here is a pic of Lucy and King hanging out.

My mom was able to stay for a couple of extra days and my kids loved having grandma in town. One of my favorite videos of me as a child is of my grandma reading to me and my sisters, so I had to get this shot of my mom reading to Netta and ES.

This last picture has nothing to do with girls' weekend except that it was taken right after everyone left. All of my kids enjoy watching tv together. Probably a little too much, but it definitely comes in handy when I have stuff to get done around the house. Gotta love family bonding around the boob tube.

Oops This Should Have Been Part One

2010-12-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

So this is kind of pathetic. First I forgot to write about a bunch of stuff that happened the beginning of December. Then 3 weeks later I finally uploaded the pictures and now a MONTH later I am actually going to finish the post. It's funny that with 3 kids I actually have more to blog about but not time to do it. Anyway our Christmas festivities actually kicked off with a dance show. Netta's dance class and EZ's gymnastics class both got to perform at the Round Rock holiday kick off. For lack of time I will not go into how stressful that night was or the mental break down I had afterward, but let's just say there were tons of people, King was wigging out and we didn't get any video of Netta. On the bright side we did get video of EZ and he actually performed! I was honestly afraid that he would freeze up and refuse to do anything since he is not a big fan of crowds. Just another way that EZ has really grown up these past couple of months. Here they are before the show showing off their somewhat overpriced costumes. (EZ's especially)

Then we had the annual Christmas party at Church. Santa came and everyone, but King was excited to meet him. (John was actually trying to hold King and take the picture of Netta at the same time, which didn't work out so well. But someone else was able to get pics so we now actually have a better one I am just too lazy to upload).

Nothing says Christmas like EZ running around in shorts and a short-sleeved short. Gotta love Texas.

Like I said King was not a fan.

A couple days later EZ had his Christmas party/performance at school. Every time we take EZ to school Netta says she wants to go, so she was so excited to finally get to be there. Here she is hanging out with EZ and his class.

The different age groups got up and performed different songs. EZ did a good job. He wasn't the most animated, but he also didn't turn around and refuse to face the audience so we will call it a success.

I didn't get a picture of it, because I was taking video at the time, but Netta actually went up and stood in line with all the 4 year olds and danced along to all their songs. Afterwards all the teachers kept coming up to me and telling me how brave she is and how she should be in school. Trust me I would have put her in the 2 year old class if we could afford it. I have a feeling it will be a very smooth transition for her in the fall and I am sure I am just as excited about it as she is.

Christmas Festivities Part 2

2010-12-30T18:45:00.000-08:00

On the 23rd we drove down to San Antonio to check out the zoo. Nothing Christmasy about that per say, but it was nice to spend the day together as a family with no other distractions.

Netta seemed to get sick on and off again throughout Christmas week and the week after so she was acting a little funny when we got there.

EZ however was gung ho from the minute we got there. For some reason he really really like carrying around the map and kept asking me where we were and where different animals were. He even played with the map for a while after we got home, but finally King got his hands on it and started to eat it so I had to throw it away.

Both kids were excited to get to go to the petting zoo. It is really misleading, because they call it a petting farm, which would lead you to believe there are multiple kinds of animals, but nope there are just pygmy goats. Of course the kids didn't care and it was very difficult to get them to leave.

Netta's on and off again illness flared up on Christmas Eve, so we had a quite night at home. I was really bummed to not be at my parent's annual open house so I opted to make a bunch of the traditional hors d'oeurves and what not that we always have. Maybe not the most complete dinner, but it made me happy. We also used our new Little People nativity set to act the first Christmas. That is the best toy ever. Christmas day of course kicked off with the opening of presents. I was so excited to watch the kids and so how much fun they had. For a couple days after it looked like a toy store had exploded in our living room. John won the price for best present by surprising me with a maid service to come clean our house! They came last week and I am still smiling I am so happy.

That night our friends Kim and John had us over for dinner. They were flying solo for the first time as well this year so it was great to be together. All and all despite being a little different our first Brown Family Christmas was a success and we are grateful that we had this time to spend with friends and family and to remember the birth of Christ.

Christmas Festivities Part 1

2010-12-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before we tried to do as much Christmas stuff as possible this year since we were flying solo. The week of Christmas John was technically on call Monday through Wednesday but he didn't really have much to do so Tuesday we headed to Zilker Park. We were able to ride the train, which of course all the kids loved. I really wish we had gotten EZ in this first picture but alas we got some guys backside instead.

EZ wanted to sit with his friend and not his uncool family.

The reason we decided to head to Zilker Park is because they have this huge Christmas Tree made out of lights. In the past they have had a huge light trail, which they canceled, so if you saw that this might now be that exciting, but we missed it so we were pretty stoked to see the tree.

We were sitting under it when they lit it and it was pretty sweet. I guess you are supposed to stand under it and spin in a circle and then fall down or something and look up. We left that to the kids.

Of course they were selling stuff there. They had this amazing kettle corn that was surprisingly cheap. We will go back next year just for that stuff. There was also a guy selling glow sticks and other glowing stuff. I don't remember where we were but a while back EZ was begging for a light-up sword which of course we denied him because they are way overpriced and usually fall apart right away. In the spirit of Christmas and because I was just tired of fighting him we let him get one this time and he loves it. Amazingly it still works and it keeps King entertained so it is worth it's weight in gold.

Finally, here is just a funny pic of King. Babies are so flexible.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

2010-12-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

This year will be the first time we actually spend Christmas in our home with just our little family. I have mixed feelings about this. I am excited to start our own traditions and not have to travel, but I have been spoiled and have been at my home in Pittsburgh every single Christmas up until now. This was also our first Thanksgiving without traveling or having out of towners at our house and it turned out to be awesome, but I am not going to lie it felt a little strange. So, in order to help make our first Brown Family Christmas as exciting as possible I decided to we should start it off as soon as possible (once Thanksgiving was over of course). It was a process to get the tree up. Not that it was actually hard, but let's be honest, my kids make me tired, and I only had the energy to actually put it up one day and then we did the ornaments the next and then we did the house decorations the next and then the outside lights the next and so on and so forth. The tree itself is a little scrawny, but I figure one of the kids is inevitably going to knock it over so at least if it's small it shouldn't kill anyone. So here are some pics of the fam by the tree. We really need a photographer to just hang out at our house so we can actually get everyone together in one photo for stuff like this. (Maybe my camera has a timer, but I really have no idea if it does and probably won't ever remember to figure it out).

Visiting EZ's Preschool

2010-12-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

We love EZ's new preschool and one of the best parts is that 3 times a year I get to go in and be a helper for the teacher. I went on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and got to help out with their Pow Wow. They started the day with a food drive. All of the kids got to bring some canned goods to fill a grocery cart for a local charity. Then they gathered wearing the headbands they had made ahead of time and had a pow wow where they shared friendship trail mix and built a huge totem pole out of boxes decorated by each of the classes. Here is EZ in his sweet headband. He chose the Indian name "Good Roaring TRex." I think it represents EZ perfectly. He is starting to really get into dinosaurs, but he is still kind of a chicken so he wants them to be nice and not roar too loud.

EZ also got to celebrate his half birthday, since they get out of school before his actual birthday. He got wear the awesome birthday crown, but the best part was this little book the class had made for him. Each of his classmates drew a picture for him and dictated to the teacher why EZ is special. The kids of course said the cutest things, like EZ is special because he has a super hero lunch box.

It was really fun to get to watch EZ interact with his teacher and the other kids. He has grown so much this year socially and I just love watching him having a great time with his friends.

Grandpa Steve In The House

2010-12-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago, my dad made the move from mechanic at USAirways to quality assurance guy and because of that he travels a lot and sometimes if he is working out of town all week he can zip by our house for a visit on his way home. Two weeks ago he did that very thing and we were able to have about 3 days to hang out. Of course it was awesome and my kids were in heaven. We always have to try new food when guests come, so we opted for some bbq served out of a trailer. It was awesome. You have to get there before the place even opens to get in line and Casey did a good job entertaining EZ and Netta so they didn't go crazy while waiting.

We split our time between my house and my sister Sarah's apartment. Sarah and Casey have a dog name Neville and King got to spend some quality time bonding with him. He isn't doing it in this picture, but Neville seems to think King is another dog and he likes to put his butt in King's face so King can sniff it. It is hilarious.

We were able to kick off the holiday season with a tree lightening at a local shopping area called The Domain. It was crazy crowded and we almost lost each other a couple of times, but the kids loved the seeing the huge Christmas tree and dancing to the music. There were also some sweet fireworks that Netta loved, but EZ was not too fond of. He just isn't a fan of really loud noises. Here we are waiting for the tree lighting. King is hungry and not as excited as everybody else.

Finally, King got to eat and was able to enjoy the rest of the night.

We are so grateful my dad's job allows him to randomly visit. It is pretty much impossible for us to travel like we used to so we will take whatever visitors we can get no matter how long or short the visit!

What The Kids Are Up To

2010-12-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

As you can see from the above picture Netta is very stylish and we are attempting to introduce potty training. Sadly, it isn't really going anywhere. She has had one successful pee on the potty and that's it. Honestly, I am not as committed as I should be to really make it happen. First, life is too crazy with all the kids to really dedicate the time needed to potty train and second we got new carpet in March and I really don't want her to pee on it.

Also Netta and EZ have started playing really well together. She wants to do whatever he is doing and for the most part he is cool with that. The best thing ever is when I see them walking holding hands. It seriously melts my heart.

EZ is really growing up and apparently paying a lot more attention to my tv shows than I had originally thought. The other day we made a Halloween clearance gingerbread house and after we had finished he said we needed to "move it to the judges table." I like to watch Foodnetwork Challenge on Sundays and I never really thought he was in to it, but I guess he is.

Finally, King had his 6 month check up at the beginning of November. The kid is still a beast weighing 20 lbs and measuring 28.5 inches. That is heavier and taller than EZ was at the same age. The best part is Netta weighed just as much as him at 6 months, but she was 2 inches shorter. Homegirl was fat. In this pic of King you can see how nicely he fills out his car seat. That thing is killer to lug around.

EZ and Netta both love to play with King and he loves it when they do. Right now they especially like to give him some extra bounce in his jumperoo. They both hold on to the straps and pull him up and down. So far he really likes it and they haven't broken it yet, so for now I am just going to enjoy watching my kids having fun together and pray for no accidents.

The Neverending Halloween

2010-11-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

I kind of forgot that I started this post awhile ago so now I will quickly try and finish it up. Halloween was an 8 day long extravaganza at our house. It started out the Saturday before the Saturday before Halloween with a free event at a shopping complex by our house. They had a free petting zoo and bounce houses along with candy of course. Netta didn't love the petting zoo like I thought she would. She is going through this weird phase were stuff that never bothered her before now scares her. She has started making me pick her up in parking lots if she hears birds and she says "The birds scare me." I have no idea where that is coming from. Anyway, the bounce house was a bigger hit. Here is EZ in his Super Why costume.

The next day my sister Sarah and her husband Casey came over. I think it was actually so Sarah could interview John and I for a class assignment, but it turned into a Halloweenish activity when they decided to make masks. Netta and Casey look especially frightening.

Later that week EZ had a Halloween party at school and while he was there Netta, King and I went to the festival that the city of Round Rock puts on for preschoolers. It was really windy, but really fun. Netta opted to go as a witch and this isn't the best picture, but it was the only one I could get because the wind kept blowing her hat off.

King enjoyed himself as well.

On Friday, our church had it's annual Trunk or Treat party. I love it because it is so much easier to trick or treat in a parking lot with the kids than going door to door. Especially with Netta who loves to run away. The kids busted out some new costumes for this event. King got to wear the Chinese outfit I bought in NYC for EZ for his first Halloween.

EZ opted for a Superman costume this time. Not much difference, except way more muscles.

Netta was a kitty cat. She talked about being this for the last month since my sister Rachel came and bought her a cat mask from Target. Of course I don't think I managed to get a single picture of her with the whole costume on, but at least in this one you can tell she is a cat from her tail.

Saturday Sarah and Casey joined us again for some pumpkin carving. EZ loved his so much that he wouldn't let me put it outside, because he wanted to be able to see it all the time.

Then finally on Hallween we went with Sarah and Casey to UT for their Halloween activity. Basically all the student organizations on campus set up booths at the arena and kids could walk around and play games and get candy. We attempted to get a family picture, but was you can see it didn't turn out very well. We honestly don't have a single good picture of all 5 of us together. In fact that is the only one have at all. Luckily, I won a free photo shoot so hopefully some good family pics are on their way.

Meeting Lucy

2010-11-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

While my dad and Winston were here visiting, my sister Meghan was busy giving birth to her baby girl Lucy. Pretty much as soon as I knew she was pregnant, I knew that I wanted to go visit and help her out when the baby was born. Of course John is awesome and was totally on board for me taking off for a long weekend. I also have an awesome sister and friends here that were willing to help out with the kiddies. I was lucky enough to get there when she was 6 days old. Obviously, King got to come with me. I am so excited that finally one of my kid's is going to have a cousin the same age on my side of the family. Here is a pic of King and Lucy meeting for the very first time. Can you tell he is older?

The poor girl had jaundice and had to be on a billy bed when we first got there. Luckily, it didn't last the whole time and I got to have plenty of chances to hold her.

On top of getting to meet Lucy and help out Meghan, I got to hang out with my sister Katie. Her husband was out of town part of the time and we stayed at her place so we had some good girl time.

King seemed to really take a liking to Lucy. So much so that he king of kept trying to rip her face off whenever he got close enough. Luckily, we were able to get this really cute picture before he attacked.

I wish I could have stayed longer, but it was an awesome trip. I admittedly got a little teary-eyed when it was time to go. It's hard to be so far from family, but luckily the sisters will be reuniting in January for a girl's weekend and of course Lucy will be joining us!

Winston Comes to Visit

2010-11-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

This past month or so we have been blessed with quite a few visitors. My sister Rachel and her husband Robert came at the end of September and my parents and John's nephew Winston actually came to visit the same weekend in October. Unfortunately, I only have pictures documenting Winston's visit, so he gets the blog post dedicated to him. Winston is going to BYU and also writes for a music blog, which allows him to score some pretty sweet tickets to concerts. He just happened to score 2 press passes to Austin City Limits, a 3 day music festival held in duh Austin, so of course he flew down and John and him got to live it up for the weekend. Luckily like I said my parents came the same weekend so I was not left completely alone. That definitely helped fend off some of the jealously that John got to spend 3 days listening to awesome music, scoring free food and most importantly getting a break from the kiddies.

John, being the awesome dad that he is, did not completely neglect the kids that weekend. In fact kids under 10 were able to get into the festival for free and there was a whole "Austin Kiddie Limits" section, so John took EZ with them for part of one day. This picture of him and EZ is one of my all time favorites.

The kid part was amazing. EZ got all this cool free stuff and was able to do crafts, check out real instruments and even get a tatoo. He had so much fun that we are thinking we should buy tickets for at least one day next year and take all the kids. Here he is showing off all his swag.

After the concert was over, Winston had another day in a half to hang out. He was awesome and watched my older 2 kids so I could go do some clothes shopping one day. My kids absolutely adore him and they were more then happy to hang out with him instead of me. We also took Winston to see the ginormous bat colony that lives in downtown Austin. Here is is hanging out with Netta waiting for the bats to take off.

Finally, an adorable pic of Netta and EZ hanging out together while waiting. They have really started to play well together and I know it's cheesy, but it seriously melts my heart.

Settling Back In

2010-10-22T10:50:00.001-07:00

September was basically spent trying to get back into the swing of things after a summer of traveling. Obviously I am still trying to get into some kind of schedule since I am just now posting this. I felt like I had things pretty much under control right before King was born and now ummm not so much, but I think King is worth it. Anyway, one of the highlights of coming home from Utah was that my sister Sarah and her husband Casey moved here to Austin the next day! My kids are so excited to have family here and so am I. When we moved here I figured we would be on our own and never imagined that within 2 years we would have family so close. Sarah is getting her Phd at UT and Casey is getting his masters and they live about 20 minutes away! Their timing couldn't have been better, since they arrived in time to help me out while John was away for his dad's funeral. Having dad gone was a lot easier to handle with an awesome aunt and uncle down the road. Here we are hanging out at their pool. (I like holding King because he makes me look tan).

September meant back to school for EZ. I will have to admit I was counting down the days till preschool started. Last year we were at the YMCA, but this year because of scheduling we switched to a local Lutheran church and we couldn't be happier. EZ loves his teacher and he seems to really be opening up and playing with other kids. He has also started reading like a champ. He is always excited to go to school and is very proud of the artwork he produces. He likes crafts so much that he made me buy him scissors and of course immediately cut of some of Netta's hair. Luckily, the damage can be easily hidden.

One of EZ's projects at school was a book about his family. I had to help him fill out a little survey and one of the questions was "What is a favorite family tradition?" and I realized that we don't really have any specific traditions, so inspired by how much fun my kids had roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in Utah, I bought us a little fire pit for our backyard. The first time was used it we were a little unprepared and we didn't eat dinner till about 8, but the kids were so excited they didn't even notice.

We also decided it would be good to get the kids involved of some kind of sportish activity so we signed Netta up for dance and EZ up for gymnastics at the local rec center. They both absolutely love it. I must say Netta is the star of her class, since she is typically the only one paying attention. She loves to dance so I am not surprised. Of course I had to search for the cutest dance outfit possible. It's kind of silly considering how young she is, but she is so stinkin cute I just can't help myself.

Finally, I little update about King. He had his four month check up during September and weighed in at 18 lbs, making him the size of some one year olds we know and he is still the biggest of my kids so far. He is definitely a morning person and I have no idea where he gets that from. He is so smiley when he first wakes up. Now when it comes to evenings things aren't always so smooth. He is also definitely the fussiest of the kids so far and always seems to melt down around dinner time. There are days when I think it's good thing he is number 3 because otherwise our family might have been a lot smaller. But really it could be a lot worse and of course his cuteness makes up for it.

Saying Goodbye to Grandpa Phil

2010-09-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Here I am again behind on posting, but this summer has just been unbelievably crazy with some of the must joyful moments and some of the saddest. At the beginning of August we were able to go to Utah to visit family. We were originally only going for a week, but John was able to get permission to work from Utah, so we were able to stay a second week. We had known before we left that his dad was not doing well so that second week was such a blessing. Whenever we go to Utah the kids are in heaven. Being around John's family is always an instant party thanks to the 39 grandkids, who happened to all be in town. One of the highlights was heading up American Fork Canyon for some nature and smores. EZ absolutely loved roasting hot dogs on the fire. In fact he spent most of the night roasting hot dog after hot dog, even if no one was eating them. Netta also enjoyed being outside, but the part she enjoyed most was running around sneaking a taste of everyone's drinks. And of course, the Brown family is notorious for the copious amount of pop they have at every occasion so she had no shortage of beverage to steal. This actually became a nasty habit of hers the whole time we were there.

We were also able to go to Lagoon Amusement Park. I lived in Utah for 6 years and this is the first time I had ever been there. Things got off to a rocky start with EZ. I thought maybe Kennywood had helped him conquer his fears, but after 3 rides he kept asking to go home. To add to his anxiety, I forced him to go on this "kid friendly" roller coaster called "The Bat" where your feet dangle. John's family kept insisting that EZ would like it once he got on it and in their defense their 4 year olds liked it, but of course EZ screamed bloody murder the whole time. As I was body slamming him into his seat, I knew I was making a mistake, but I was kind of too embarrassed to take him off. I just wanted him to get over it like the other little kids. Well he didn't and he proceeded to hit me and yell at me when we got off. By some miracle he was only traumatized for about an hour and then he actually rode all the other kid rides and had a blast. I guess none of them seemed as scary after "The Bat". Netta of course tried everything and even though she bit off more than she could chew with some of the bigger rides, so always got over it right away and kept on going.

The reason all the grandkids were in town was the Hatch family reunion, which is John's mom's family. There were 150 plus people there and it was crazy, but awesome. Again same theme, tons of kids so EZ was in heaven and tons of beverage so Netta was in heaven. EZ especially enjoyed rolling down the hill in this huge inflatable ball and going down the huge slip'n slide, both of which I didn't expect him to take such a liking to. The last day of the reunion John and his dad and brothers were able to give King a baby blessing. In our Church, when you have a new baby they are given a blessing in which you enter the baby's name in the Church records and also give them a blessing for a healthy and happy life. EZ and Netta were both blessed back east with my family so it was so nice to bless King with John's family and especially with his dad.

Unfortunately, being around that much family and that many kids, while a ton of fun, is also a breeding ground for disease and EZ and I both ended up getting the stomach flu, which resulted in a lot of throw up, especially on EZ's part. I think he christened every room of John's dad's house. The poor boy was a wreck. While Netta and John didn't really get sick, they were exhausted too.

We also got to spend some time with my family. We headed down to Provo for the day and got to see Meghan and Jared, Katie and Brad and Sarah and Casey. Sarah and Casey aren't in the picture because they were busy packing for the big move to Austin!!!!!! More on that later. We took the kids to the Bean Museum at BYU and EZ insisted that he have his picture taken with the Moose.

While the trip was great, there was definitely some bitter mixed in with the sweetness. While we were there John's dad Phil's health started to rapidly go down hill and by the last night he told everyone that he wanted to start hospice care and we knew we would likely not see him again. It's hard to think of John not having any parents around and the kids not really getting to know either of their Brown grandparents, but as long as I have known Phil he has talked about wanting to be reunited with John's mom, who passed away 9 year ago while John was on his mission, so the thought of them being together again brings some joy.

We left Utah on Saturday Aug 14 and on Sunday Aug 22nd Phil passed away. His time in hospice care was blessedly brief and I am just so grateful we were able to be there for those two weeks and that the kids were able to make some memories with him. (In the picture below Phil is cutting some fruit up and sharing it with Netta. He definitely knew the way to her heart).

We will miss Phil Brown, but feel blessed to have the knowledge that this life is not the end and that families can be together forever.

For Your Consideration

2010-08-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

We keep getting asked "Who does King look like?" John thinks King looks just like EZ, but I think he is a good mix of Netta and EZ. So here are some pics of each of the kiddies all taken at about 3 1/2 months. Try to ignore the fact that King's picture is such better quality then the rest. That's because John's awesome cousin Whitny took it and I took the other 2.

Kingy Bingy

2010-07-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Gotta get one last post in to be pretty much caught up before we go out of town again! King had his 2 month check up almost a month ago now, but anyway here are the stats.

Weight 14 1/2 pounds
Height 23 1/2 inches

That is 99% for weight and 75% for height. He started out the biggest and is still holding onto that title. I guess I am just destined to have big babies.

I have been attempting to get a good shot of all three kids togther, but that is near impossible. So here are 4 pics in which some of the kids look good some of the time, but none of them look good all of the time. (You can click on the collage to view it bigger).

And finally, just a collage showing how crazy and cute EZ and Netta are.

Pittsburgh

2010-07-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

So after the week at Virginia Beach, the kids and I drove back up to Pittsburgh with my parents. I was in one car with King and my dad and my sister Katie and my mom were in another car with EZ and Netta. By some miracle everyone behaved the whole drive. My mom and Katie really lucked out on that one. Katie was only able to stay in Pittsburgh a couple days with us, but the kids and I were there for 3 weeks. Crazy with a newborn, but we had a wedding to go to in Pittsburgh at the end of the month and there was no way we were going to fly the whole family to Virginia and back and then 3 weeks later fly us all to Pittsburgh. So John got to be on his own for awhile. I know he missed us, but I am sure there were moments when he was happy to have all the peace and quiet. Luckily, my parents are AMAZING and did a great job helping me with the kids. My sister Rachel and her family also live in the same town and they helped a ton as well. They have some kids that are babysitting age, which of course I took advantage of and EZ and Netta loved having cousins to play with. So here are some pics chronicling our time in Pittsburgh

First Grandpa Steve and Netta at the zoo, which is always a favorite.

As you can see Netta had a little too much fun at the zoo.

EZ had just the right amount of fun.

The whole time we were there I was debating whether or not to go to Kennywood, the amusement park by my house. We had taken EZ when he was 2 and he was not a fan. He is older now, but knowing his personality I wasn't sure it would be any better this time. However, I knew Netta would have a blast so I went back and forth, but finally decided it wasn't worth the money, especially if EZ had a melt down. I was a little bummed and then like an answer to prayer, my mom won 4 free tickets at work. How frickin awesome is that?! So we made it to Kennywood after all and since the tickets were free, it didn't matter if EZ was a dork and refused to ride anything. Good thing, because it took almost 2 hours to get him to ride anything. (In his defense, he did fall asleep in the car about 20 minutes before we got there, which is never a good thing). So here is Netta riding without EZ and chatting up the girl next to her. Netta actually chose to sit by strangers and talk to them as they rode, which is exactly how I was when I was little. I used to ask to sit by myself on the plane when we would fly standby and chat with all the businessmen.

Again here is Netta on her favorite ride "The Whip". The girl has no fear.

I think EZ started to get jealous because we were taking so many pictures of Netta and making such a big deal out of each ride she got on. He kept yelling at my dad to stop looking at her. Finally, he couldn't handle it and he actually got on a ride. It was a like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders. Hurray my son is not a complete baby. He was still a little timid on the first ride. . .

. . .but eventually he started having a blast and then he never wanted to stop riding.

King of course was a long for the ride and got in some good bonding time with Grandma Sharon. The adults didn't really ride anything, but that was ok with me, because I was just so glad EZ finally got over his fear and that both kids had so much fun.

Here is the only picture I have of any of my sister's kids. This is Carol chillin with King. I should have gotten more pics, but it's really a miracle I got any at all.

Finally, after 3 weeks without John the family was reunited and we got to go to the wedding of our friends Kim and John. We actually met them in Texas when we were here for John's internship and got back in touch with them when we moved back down. It turns out that she just happens to be from Pittsburgh, so of course we had to go to the wedding. That and John was a groomsman. They got married downtown in Heinz Chapel, which was absolutely gorgeous.

Then the reception was in yet another gorgeous location, the Le Mont on Mount Washington. Here is King taking in the great view of the city from the restaurant.

I am not going to lie and say that everything was peachy keen while we were there. Being spouse-less with a newborn is less than ideal, but I had a lot of support from my family and I was grateful to get to spend so much time with them.

Virginia Beach

2010-07-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

My parents threw together an awesome family reunion in Virginia Beach the first week of June. Traveling with a 4 week old maybe wasn't exactly ideal, but there was no way I wasn't going to go and it was a blast. EZ being EZ refused to actually go in the ocean. Maybe he let some water touch his feet once. Instead he opted for horse shoes. I can't believe he is such an old man already.

Of course Netta being Netta was exactly the opposite of EZ and absolutely loved playing in the waves.

Because of work John was only able to stay half of the week, which was sad, but he made the most of his time there and with the kiddies.

Once John left my family of course stepped up to the plate and helped out with the kiddies, which a lot of time meant they got to do whatever they wanted. Here is EZ hanging out in the "bathtub." (Don't worry we didn't keep it super hot, because of all the kids there).

Obviously, Netta has the grandparents wrapped around her finger and she can get way with murder.

One of the best parts about the trip is that my Grandpa was there. He lives in New York and with us being in Texas and especially now that we have 3 kids, it is going to be harder and harder to get to see him, so I was so happy we got to spend a week with him and that he got to meet his newest grandkid.

A lot more happened, but alas I have to attempt to get some things done around the house while I have the miracle of 2 sleeping kids.

Happy Birthday EZ

2010-07-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

So thanks to 3 kids I am uber behind on blogging, along with a list of other things, but I will do my best to catch up on the last 2 months. May is birthday month at our house with King and Netta at the beginning and EZ at the end. EZ has been talking about a Chuck e Cheese party since he went to one back in September, so that made planning easy. Luckily, I had my sister Meghan in town to help with King, so of course she got to help with the party as well. In fact without her there would be very few pictures, so we have her to thank for the following cute pics. EZ insisted on wearing his party hat, which was actually given to him for his first birthday, but hey thanks to an adjustable strap it still fits.

Netta had a blast and rode the Merry go Round over and over again.

EZ had an awesome Diego cake thanks to the local grocery store. It was made out of cupcakes, which I love because all you need is some napkins to clean up afterwards.

As you can see from his goofy face, EZ had a great time. It's a miracle that this party happened, because the very next day we took off for a month long trip back east. So EZ some day when you see this I hope you appreciate how much your mommy loves you.

Happy Birthday Netta

2010-05-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

It took me long enough to finally post this, but on Sunday May 9th, Netta celebrated her 2nd birthday. Not sure how I feel about the fact that Netta's birthday kind of trumped Mother's Day, but that's what I get for having all these May babies. It was an extra special day, because we got our first visitors from John's side of the family! His sister Lexi and her husband Casey and their little boy Cash came to visit. They were in Dallas for work and were able to come down for a couples of days along with some of their friends from BYU. We were so excited to have them here and John was especially excited to be able to stay up late playing games, something I am not all that in too and especially not into right now. He was in heaven. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the so you will have to just take my word for it that they were here. Anyway, here are some pics from the birthday celebration. First, Netta with her Dora cake of course.

Netta with her psychedelic fangs, that my sister Sarah pointed out. She of course loved her cupcakes. In fact she loves all food. She can out eat any kid twice her size. She has been feeling really heavy lately, but I wasn't sure if she had really gained weight or if it was just from comparing her to how little King is. Well she had her 2 year check up and she weighs 29 lbs, which is as much as EZ weighed at 2 years, but she is 2 inches shorter. And she has gained 5 lbs since her 18 month check up. So yeah she is solid.

She also fell madly in love with her present from Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sharon. Here she is chillin in her car watching tv. Our house has turned into a drive in theater. She loves the car so much that she refused to wear the princess dress I bought her because it is too bulky and she can't sit comfortably in the car while wearing it.

Of course EZ had to get in on the action, although I don't know how much longer he will fit in it.

King's Arrival

2010-05-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

As with most pregnant women, I was more than ready to welcome this baby into the world and get it out of me. This pregnancy had its ups and downs, starting with morning sickness, something I hadn't really experienced before, some ups with less heart burn and acne then before, and then ending with a huge stomach that got me the always loved "you are huge" and "are you having twins" comments from strangers. So yeah I was ready to be done and when I went in for my appointment at 37 1/2 weeks I was already 3 cm and my doctor told me she thought I wouldn't make it to my next appointment. Well that gave me the determination not to make it to my next appointment and so I began attempting every possible way to naturally induce my labor, with the exception of castor oil. I did that with EZ and while it did break my water and start labor the side affects were just too gross. On Sunday May 2nd I was having tons of braxton hicks contractions and I thought it might be the day, but whenever I stopped moving the contractions stopped so it was not meant to be. Finally Monday night at about 10:30 I started having very very strong contractions so at midnight we headed to the hospital and I was already 6 cm. I was excited to be so far along, but even more excited to get an epidural. Within about an hour of checking in I had my epidural and was feeling much better. I remained pretty calm through the contractions, but I will honestly say that I had reached my breaking point right before I got the drugs. At 1:50amish I was 8 cm and then by 2:15amish I was a 10! Apparently epidurals don't slow down my labor. It only took a couple of pushes and then Kingston made his debut at 2:34am, exactly 4 hours after my labor started. As soon as the doctor caught him she pronounced him to be 9 lbs and she was dead on. I am actually glad he was big, because it makes me feel better about how large my stomach got.

When the kids came to the hospital Netta was not really sure what she thought of King and didn't show much interest in him. EZ reacted exactly the same way when Netta was born.

EZ on the other hand was in love with King the minute he saw him. He wants to be near him all the time and hold him.

EZ also fell in love with my bed at the hospital and the donuts John got for me.

I honestly loved being in the hospital. Don't get me wrong, I missed my family, but I just loved having people take care of me. Because of when King was born, my doctor said I could leave after just one night if I wanted, but I said no thank you I am taking my 2 nights and I am so glad I did.

Sadly we didn't get any pics of King and I while at the hospital. I think it's mainly because I had some taken of me after Netta was born and I looked horrible so I was afraid to take any until I was showered and made up and by the time I was we forgot. Oops

Netta still took awhile to warm up to King once he was home. She actually warmed up to his bouncer before him.

Finally though, she decided she likes him and especially likes to give him his binky. Only problem is she typically waits till he starts sucking on it and then rips it back out of his mouth only to shove it back in 2 seconds later. We are working on that.

Finally, here are just some really cute pics of King.

Kingston Timothy Brown

2010-05-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

Kingston was born Tuesday at 2:34am measuring 9 lbs and 21.5 inches. More details and pics coming soon.

Surprise! (No not the baby)

2010-04-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago we got quite the surprise when on Monday John sent me a text saying he was heading to Brazil the next day! Now earlier in March we knew there was a chance that John might go to Brazil in April but, the Friday before he found out he was going, he was told he wouldn't be going till June. So yeah it came as quite the surprise when they said "back your bags you are out of here tomorrow."' Luckily, we had a reward ticket on Southwest (I can't say enough about how much I love having Southwest credit card, but I won't go off on that) and my sister Sarah has a very flexible schedule this semester, so we were able to fly her down for basically the whole week and a half that John was gone. I don't think I physically could have done it without her help. Not pregnant it would have been hard, but doable without live-in help, but at 35-36 weeks pregnant going it alone just wasn't an option.

The kids absolutely loved having Sarah here. She has much more energy and mobility than I do and Netta loved having someone she could climb all over. It also worked out well for Sarah, because her and her husband both got into grad school at University of Texas and she was able to meet with her advisor, apply for some jobs and even meet up with a high school friend who lives in Louisiana. Not to shabby. One of the things we did was head to the neighborhood park. You would think I could do this a lot by myself, but my kids still kind of scare me on big playgrounds and my reaction time just isn't that fast. I am glad we went though, because little did I know, our park is basically a hug field of blue bonnets, which make for excellent pictures.

Sadly, this is the only picture I got of Sarah. I guess at least we have some proof she was here.

I love this picture because it says so much about how goofy EZ is. I plane flew overhead and he had to plug his ears, but Netta didn't even flinch. It seems to be this new thing he is going through where he has to plug his ears if there is something even slightly loud around him.

As I said in the last post, EZ loves baking and we finally got to make the sugar cookies I had planned on doing Easter weekend. Netta kills me because she never ate a single cookie. All she would do was pick the sprinkles out of the icing and eat them. So eventually I just started giving her sprinkles on a plate so she wouldn't make such a mess.

The kids were sooo excited when John came home. Of course he came with gifts, which added to the excitement level. EZ and Netta loved their presents and actually a favorite of both of them is this Hello Kittie backpack. On Saturday EZ insisted on dressing himself and wearing the backpack all day. He never ceases to crack me up.

It was hard having John gone, but it was a blast having Sarah here, so all and all things worked out pretty well. Any other aunts who want to win over the kiddies better step up their game, cause Aunt Sarah is definitely the fave right now.

Easter Fun

2010-04-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well I am finally getting around to posting about Easter. Other stuff has happened since the last time I posted at the end of February, but let's be honest it is a miracle I am finally getting this post up. We did all the traditional Easter activities: Easter egg hunt, dying eggs and finding the Easter basket. We had an awesome Easter egg hunt just with our weekly playgroup. Of course I forgot the camera, but the kids had a blast and it was great because it was just a small group of us and we didn't have to fight huge crowds for a few eggs. The kids also really enjoyed dying eggs. Now that I think about it we didn't even get around to dying eggs last year, so this was the first year EZ was old enough to really get into it. He was very proud of his eggs.

We basically just let Netta put stickers on eggs for fear of her making a frickin huge mess if we let her near the dye. If you will notice in this picture she is wearing a tie. This is the tie EZ wore on his first Easter and somehow it made its way out of storage and for days Netta and EZ fought over who got to wear it.

EZ loved his eggs so much that he actually started carrying one around like a baby. He took the shell off and took a bite, but decided it was gross and would make a better baby. He wrapped it in a "blanket" and carried it around most of the day, continually pointing out how cute it was.

Finally, the kids got to do some baking with dad. EZ has become obsessed with helping out in the kitchen ever since he went to this little cooking class over spring break and of course Netta wants to do whatever EZ is doing. EZ is lucky I am pregnant and not dieting because this way I actually bake somewhat often.

Poor Netta

2010-02-26T12:58:00.001-08:00

It looks like a once a month blog post is about as good as it's gonna get around here. Perhaps it will improve at some point, but probably not till I have given birth and then had a couple of months to get the hang of having three kids. So yeah not for a while.

Anyway, about 3 weeks ago Netta managed to injure herself. Under her DAD'S supervision she managed to fall of the back of the couch and then proceeded to limp for the next couple of days. This was on Friday and by Monday morning, even though she didn't seem to be in any pain, she was still limping and we figured it was time to take her to the doctor. First, I actually called the Well at Dell nurse hot line and the nurse at the pediatricians office, just to make sure we needed to bring her in. I hate hate going to the doctor and being told there is nothing they can do for you, so I just wanted to be double sure that that wasn't going to happen this time. Luckily, John was able to meet us there so I didn't have to try and wrangle both kids by myself. After 2 rounds of xrays and lots of screaming on Netta's part, they couldn't figure out what was wrong and said we needed to see a pediatric orthopedist.

We made an appointment for the next day, but before the specialist would see us, Netta had to have some blood work done. I cannot tell you how scared I was of that. I hate getting blood drawn and it just seemed like such a nightmare when I thought about how Netta would react, but the nurses were great and she actually only cried for like a second, unlike during the xrays where she screamed and cried the whole time. After the blood work we were off to the specialist and let me tell you they are specialists for a reason. It took them about 2 seconds to figure out what was wrong with her and it turned out to be a hairline fracture in one of the bones in her foot. (The pediatrician had only ever focused in on her leg). So they told us she would need a cast for 3 weeks. Here she is modeling her new look. She picked out the hot pink all by herself and who can blame her?!

I wasn't sure how she would get around with it, but she ran right out of that doctor's office. They were very impressed. Nothing is going to slow this girl down.

We have just one week left. I am so grateful she only has to have it for 3 weeks. The little boot thing seems to be annoying her and she keeps trying to take it off, which means she falls on her face whenever she tries to walk without it. Also, I am kind of sick of her stepping on my bare toes with that thing. Man it hurts. (As a side note about the boot, the stupid thing cost $26 and it was the one thing not covered by my insurance. How frickin ridiculous). Anyway that is our latest adventure and luckily, despite her getting hurt, it is kind of cute.

Meghan and Jared

2010-01-28T17:41:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned before I had a crazy travel schedule over the holidays. I survived traveling with the kids by myself over Christmas and then a week after getting back to Texas, Netta and I headed to Utah for my sister Meghan's wedding. Netta only got to tag along because she is still and lap child and therefore free. The wedding was beautiful and it was honestly one of the best ceremonies I have ever been too. Of course I realized at the temple that my camera battery was dead so I wasn't able to take any pictures. Not that Netta would have really let me take all that many pictures. She loves my family, but she is still going through this clingy phase. On the way back I flew through Phoenix and when I got there I found out my flight had been delayed and I had a 3 hour layover. As I was thinking about how much that was going to suck with Netta it hit me that my friend Sarah lives in Phoenix so I gave her a call and found out she lives seriously like 10 minutes from the airport, so she came and saved us from being tortured at the airport. It could not have been more perfect. I was so happy to get to see her and her family and how things are going in Phoenix.

Then 2 weeks after we got back the whole family flew to Pittsburgh for the wedding reception. I was so excited to get to dance and then I realized I am pregnant and not really able to dance all that well and add to that the fact that for some reasons my kids insisted on being held all night and it made things kind of difficult. Despite all that I did my best to rock out and man oh man did I pay for it the next day. The kids had a blast with all the music. EZ of course decided that he should start dancing during the daddy daughter dance. Here he is running laps around Meghan and my dad.

As I said Netta insisted on being held all night, but she did occasionally let me pass her off to one of my sisters. Here she is with the beautiful bride.

Finally we have EZ and John busting a move. The kids really did give us each good workouts that night.

Christmas Time is Here

2009-12-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-27T16:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

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 ...

2009-12-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T15:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T19:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

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.

John Irving Eckerson

2009-08-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

My dad's dad, John Irving Eckerson aka Grandpa E., passed away this morning, so I wanted to give a little tribute to him. My husband John is out of town and he called to see if I was ok and I am because I know that he lived a long full live to the age of 87 and he is in a better place. His mind had started to go a while ago and now his body finally gave up as well. Now he is isn't bogged down by a failing mind and a slow body and he is reunited with his wife and I am sure he is loving every minute of it. Here are some pics with him and EZ taken over the last 3 years and some thoughts about my Grandpa to go along with them. This first picture was taking when EZ was just 3 months old. We were visiting NY and went with my grandpa to see the local band play. They always play patriotic songs and the audience sings along. My grandpa sang loud and proud. He had an amazing voice and was very involved with his church and their choir. I was just so amazed that no matter how weak his body was his voice was still so strong and beautiful.

This next picture was taken when EZ was a year old. I think it is so cute the way he is looking at my grandpa. Grandpa E. loved EZ and whenever we would visit he would want to make sure he got pictures and that they were labeled with names and dates. He was very into keeping track of photos and family history. He did an amazing amount of genealogy work and even with his failing mind, he knew it was really important to keep track of names and dates for the benefit of himself and his posterity.

Here is 18 month old EZ with Granpda and Helen at the Candy Apply my grandpa's favorite restaurant. One of the things I actually remembered most about him was that he never cooked and we always went out or ordered in. I mean who can blame him. My Grandpa passed way over 20 years ago so he was living like a bachelor for quite some time.

Finally, the last picture I have of my Granpda is from last summer right after Netta was born. I am glad I got this one of him, my dad and EZ. My grandpa loved his family and would do anything for them. He will be missed, but I know he's got a bunch of family greeting him in heaven.

EZ's Reward

2009-08-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

EZ has been really good about going potty all by himself and has even gone quite a few nights without peeing, so we decided to celebrate his freedom from diapers by letting him beat the crap out of a pinata all by himself. That and I found this 4th of July pinata on clearance at Walmart and I wanted a reason to buy it. EZ absolutely loves pinatas and whenever there is one at a party he never wants to let anyone else take a turn so I figured this was the perfect reward. John is a brave man and agreed to hold it while EZ attempted to hit it.

His hits didn't do much damage, so John decided to start swinging the pinata into EZ'z bat while he hit it to give it some extra force.

When that didn't do much damage we finally gave up and just put it on the floor so EZ could really go at it.

After a good 20 minutes EZ finally busted it open. Here he is making sure he got every last tootsie pop out of there.

And here he is enjoying the spoils.

Of course Netta got in on the tootsie pop action as well. She was sitting in my lap while I was loading these pictures and when she saw this one of her with the lollipop she pointed and said "Mmmmm".

The pinata still had some life in it so EZ continued to beat on it periodically over the next couple of days. Honestly, my favorite part about this whole activity was EZ's pronunciation of pinata. He insists on calling it a peeyata no matter how many times we say it correctly and it just cracks me up.
PS. My sister likes to point out that EZ is never wearing pants in pictures and well who can blame him when it's 105 degrees outside.

The Past Month Part 4: Visiting California

2009-08-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

So after visiting my family I flew across the country by myself with the kiddies to meet up with John in California so we could visit his siblings that live there. Of course it sucked. After eating some lunch at the Pittsburgh airport we got to the gate 20 minutes before the flight took off, which is usually around when Southwest boards and they had already boarded the whole plane! I couldn't believe it. Then they kept yelling at me to hurry up, but I wasn't late. In fact they boarded so quickly that we had to sit on the plane waiting for the luggage to load before we could even take off. Of course it was a full flight so when we got on there weren't any seats together and it took over 5 minutes and the promise of lots of free alcohol to finally get someone to move so I could sit with my kids. Then EZ threw a royal tantrum and laid down in the middle of the aisle and refused to move. Oh the joy of traveling with kids. Luckily, God is merciful and EZ fell asleep right after take off and slept for over half of the 4 hour flight. That helped a lot and gave me a chance to regain my sanity. Initially, I was supposed to arrive 4 hours before John and somehow entertain the kids till he got there, but in a last minute justified panic, I had John change his ticket so he got in 4 hours before me. That was definitely inspired because when we got there they had lost our luggage and John was able to entertain the kids while I waited in line to get that taken care of. I already have plans to travel by myself with the kids at Christmas, but then after that I think I am done for a while.

Anyway, once we got settled we had a blast. Who couldn't have a blast when you live 5 minutes from the beach? EZ was a little more timid when it came to the beach and the water, which came as no surprise. Of course Netta just dove right in.

She loved it so much that she probably ate a couple pounds worth of sand every time we went. It was disgusting.

Like I said, EZ was a bit timid, but once he got warmed up to things he had a blast.

John's brother in law Casey plays pro beach volleyball and we were lucky enough to be there for one of his tournaments and it was awesome! Here are some pics from the first game. They won the match, but only after the second game went to 38-36 which is insane since beach volleyball usually only goes to 21, but you have to win by 2. It was really intense.

The next game, they got to play on the main court and we got to sit in the VIP section right up front.

The amazing part was that their second game went long again and this time they won 40-38, tying the record for the longest men's' game ever. Pretty impressive. We definitely got our moneys worth!

We also got to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and it was amazing! EZ and Netta love animals so we try to go to zoos/aquariums whenever we can. However as you can tell in this picture they are not as fond of ginormous stuffed animals.

One more highlight of the trip that I don't have pictures of unfortunately was a surprise visit from John's dad. Well it wasn't a surprise to everyone else there, but we didn't realize he was making the trip down for John's nephew's baby blessing, so we were so excited to see him there. Living in Texas is awesome, but it does kind of isolate us from everyone so the more chances we have to see family the better.

The Past Month Part 3: Visiting Pittsburgh

2009-08-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

After my niece's visit she flew with me back to Pittsburgh to visit my family. I was so glad we could have Sharon's visit right before this trip so she could fly back with me and the kids since John couldn't come. By some miracle all of my siblings managed to make their way to Pittsburgh at the same time, so it was like a mini family reunion. We were able to do all the Pittsburgh stuff like Kennywood and the zoo. We actually did both of those in the same day, which made for quite a fun, but exhausting time. We went to the zoo with all the kids in the afternoon and then all of us adult siblings took off for an evening at Kennywood. (For those of you that don't know Kennywood is an amusement park by my house). The weather was a little rainy, but that didn't stop us. In fact it was actually nice because the park was kind of empty and we basically could just walk on to every ride. The only downside was that since we didn't have any downtime between rides one person in our party got a bit ill. Oops.

It was great to spend so much time with my family and even better because me kids achieved some firsts on the trip. After almost 5 months of successfully peeing on the potty EZ finally decided it would be a good idea to poo there as well. Hallelujah. And, drum roll please, lazy Miss Netta finally started taking some steps. I wouldn't say she is "walking", but she can walk across the room if she feels so inclined. EZ also rekindled his love with Wii Sports. Just as with guitar hero in the past, when EZ likes a game he really likes it and insists on playing it 24/7. He was so obsessed that he would sit and play by himself for literally 4 hour blocks at a time and after about 2 days of that the batteries died and we opted not to replace them so he wouldn't be able to play anymore. We will not be getting a Wii anytime soon.

Here are some pics from the trip. The first 3 are of the random places EZ passed out around the house. While at my parents' house EZ never wants to nap or go to bed so we just let him play till he can't play anymore.

You will notice that these next 2 pictures are in the same chair. That is because this is the chair in front of the tv with the Wii and he when he got too tired to stand he would sit in it and play golf from there till he passed out.

And finally passed out at my sister's pool.

Here are some of the pics from our trip to the zoo, starting with me, Netta and my niece Ellie

Then grandpa and Netta

EZ and Carol

And last, but not least, Grace and EZ. The best part about this picture is that she is 2 1/2 years older than him, but almost the same size.

The Past Month Part 2: Saying Goodbye

2009-08-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Before we took off for two weeks of traveling, we had to say goodbye to our friends Sarah and Aaron Adams and their kids Claire and Noel. These are the friends I have posted about before that we knew in Michigan and then got lucky enough to have move down here when we came down for John's internship. Having them here has been such a blessing. It made the transition so much easier and Sarah is one of my best friends. I was really bummed to see them go, but I am excited for their family and Aaron's chance to get his masters. Luckily they are moving to Phoenix, a place where John has family and where you can find cheap airfares to, so we will definitely be seeing them again. Evening knowing that, I still get a little teary-eyed thinking about them being gone. Anyway, here are some pics from our farewell dinner, starting with Sarah and I. . .

Then EZ and Claire. I just realized I didn't get one of Noel and Netta, which makes me sad. I am also sad that these next two super cute pictures are marred by the presence of my camera strap.

The amazing part of this last picture is that it was totally a spontaneous hug and despite not always getting along swimmingly in the past, EZ and Claire actually played really well together that night. Of course they wait till she is moving to start getting along.

The Past Month Part 1: Visitors

2009-08-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

So I have kind of gone m.i.a. the last month, but for good reason. We had two weeks of visitors followed by two weeks of traveling, so now I will do my best to catch up on everything. We were kind of running a bed and breakfast here for a while. One weekend we had some friends spend Saturday night here and then a different set of friends spent Sunday night here and then that Wednesday my niece Sharon flew in to town to spend 2 weeks with us. That Saturday we moved EZ into our room to make room for our friends' kids and at one point we walked in our room to find that EZ and Netta had made themselves comfortable together in EZ's bed. I really hope they always get along this well.

Having my niece Sharon here was a blast. She got to come for her 13th birthday and it was just so nice to have another almost adult in the house. Thanks to her helping with the kids I was able to go to the dentist and hang out with my friend Sarah without our kids, but no worries I did not abuse her babysitting skills. We were able to do a ton of fun stuff. Sharon loves to read so there were lots of trips to the library and used bookstore. One of the main highlights was going to see the Round Rock Express, the minor league baseball team that plays in the Dell stadium. John gets tickets half off since he works for Dell and the lawn seats are only $6 to begin with so its quite the steal. Also on Monday, which is when we went, they have dollar drinks and dollar hot dogs. You can't beat that! Plus the kids had a blast. I couldn't believe how excited EZ was about watching the game. Now he talks about baseball all the time. Anyway, here are some pics from the game. Sharon and Netta hanging out.

Netta trying desperately to get something out of an empty cup.

EZ with a bright light above his head. I thought it was cool.

USA is A-OK

2009-07-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the 4th of July we headed up to Dallas to visit our friends Ruth and Gavin. I wish I had pictures from our first day there, because we went to this water park and Netta was a swimming/crawling fiend. She wasn't really swimming but she would crawl in the water shallow water and would just go deeper and deeper till she couldn't keep her hands on the ground. She didn't even care that her face was halfway in the water. She just closed her mouth and kept on going. So not like EZ at that age that is it almost unbelievable. Anyway, the 4th of July kicked off with a pancake breakfast at the church and then a bike parade for the kiddies. Here is EZ in his decked out tricycle.

Here is Netta looking very patriotic.

We tried to get a good picture of EZ and Caden together on their bikes, but alas this was the best we could do.

This next picture just kills me. Apparently EZ is VERY excited to be an American and VERY excited that he "won the big race," which actually means he got a participant ribbon like everyone else, but he was pretty sure that he had won.

We also had a little trouble getting a picture of Netta and Brynlee together. Notice Netta is three months older but she is the one sitting on the ground because she cant stand on her own. Oh my lazy babies.

After the breakfast we headed to a neighborhood celebration that had a petting zoo and a sprinkler park and all kinds of fun stuff. EZ was being himself at the sprinkler park and didn't really want to go near the water, so Ruth gave him some goggles in hopes that wearing them might make him feel a little braver and he loved them. He not only wore them at the sprinkler, but insisted on keeping them on while playing games . . .

and for the ride home.

We capped the night off by watching the Macy's fireworks on TV. After a long day in the sun none of us felt like trying to fight our way through crowds or traffic with all the kiddies. Luckily Ruth and Gavin have a huge projector for their TV so the fireworks were pretty life like.

Thanks to guys for an awesome weekend and go USA!

Photo Shoot

2009-06-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to get professional pictures of EZ and Netta since their birthdays in May and I finally got around to it today. You may have read my post around Christmas about the horrific experience I had at JCPenny, so this time I decided to go with Portrait Innovations. I have had a lot of friends go here and love it, so I thought it would be worth a shot. My friend Sarah warned that they do such a good job that you end up spending more money than you planned and she was right. I totally spent more than I planned and afterwards I was thinking maybe I should have spent less, but I honestly don't know how I could have. In fact as I was looking back through the cd I saw some pics I wished I had ordered that I didn't. So yeah they are great with kids and I am happy to say that I actually enjoyed going there. So here are some of the pics. I didn't order all the ones I posted and I think I left some out that I ordered, but anyway this gives you a good idea of how many cute pictures there are.

Surprise!!

2009-06-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

John managed to surprise me big time and flew my parents in for the weekend. I honestly had no idea they were coming. Of course the kids were just as surprised and excited. Then he surprised me again by saying we were going to San Antonio for the weekend to check out the Riverwalk and Sea World. We had such a blast. We had some amazing Mexican food and did a boat tour of the Riverwalk. It is like being in a whole other world or on a Disney ride or something. Here is a pic of my mom and Netta at Mi Tierra waiting for dinner.

Here is my dad and EZ also waiting for dinner.

Here's a pic of Netta and I also waiting for dinner and enjoying some live music. There were a bunch of mariachi like bands walking around offering their musical services for a small fee. John had them play a song his mom and grandma used to sing all the time. (John's mom grew up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico so that's why she used to sing in Spanish in case you were wondering). Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that.

After dinner we took the boat tour of the Riverwalk. Like I said it was amazing. This picture hardly does it justice. You should google it or something if you haven't heard of it before.

The next morning we enjoyed some time by the pool. EZ has been taking swim lessons and even though he still cant actually swim he is much better in the water about basic stuff like remembering to close his mouth when he goes under. Pretty important. Here is a pic of Netta looking cute while getting tried off.

After swimming we headed to Sea World. They had a pretty sweet deal where we could all get in for the child price and get a pass for each person to come back one more time for free. Not too shabby. We will definitely be heading back in the fall after the weather cools down a bit. It was hotter than Hades out there. Despite the heat we all still had a blast. Netta got so excited every time she saw an animal/creature which meant she was excited and squealing pretty much the whole time. My favorite part was feeding the dolphins. Here is a nice close up of our dolphin friend.

EZ really liked the big aquarium where he got to see all his "friends" from Finding Nemo. We really need to cut back on his tv time.

Sadly my parents had to leave on Sunday. EZ was a bit distraught and apparently stood in the garage staring at the floor for quite some time after I left to take them to the airport. Luckily we are headed to Pittsburgh in about 4 weeks. Of course I have to say thanks to my rockin hubby who put this all together for me. Thanks babe. I love you!

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to Grandpa Steve and Grandpa Phil and most importantly Dada!

Love,

EZ aka Tom Cruise

and Netta (after enjoying one of EZ's markers)

Dublin Dr. Pepper Birthday Celebration

2009-06-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to the Dublin Dr. Pepper Birthday Celebration. Dublin is a city a little over 2 hours north of Austin where they have the only Dr. Pepper bottling plant that uses pure cane sugar. John thought he had died and gone to heaven. They were giving out free Dr. Pepper and this stuff was phenomenal. Pure cane sugar makes all the difference. My favorite part was when they busted out the birthday cake made with, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper. It was so frickin good. Between that and all the free Dr. Pepper I honestly gained 2 pounds that day. They also had a carnival going on, which EZ loved. It was hotter than all get out, but definitely worth it. Here are some pics from the festivities.

An old fashioned delivery truck stocked with the glass bottles.

Netta and I enjoying a frickin awesome Dr. Pepper float.

The souvenir shop.

Every year they change all the city signs to say "Dr. Pepper Texas"

John as a Dr. Pepper spokesman with his new hat and a drink in hand.

Random Happenings

2009-06-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post about some of the random happenings in our lives as of late. Nothing photo worthy or super special, but I still think worth recording and sharing. So here we go:

Netta
1. Eats everything and I mean everything. The other day she was airing her bum out after a diaper change and pooped on the floor, ate some of it, and then threw up all over the place. It was disgusting and hilarious at the same time, although not all that fun to clean up.
2. Does not learn lessons well. Immediately after throwing up she attempted to eat a crayon. She loves crayons and the other day I found her storing them in her cheeks.
3. Finally has started pulling herself up to standing. She isn't cruising yet, but I am glad she is showing some desire to break away from the floor. I am not necessarily in a hurry for her to walk, but I don't know how I feel about both my kids being late walkers. The doctor said if it ruins in the family then there is less to worry about, but that actually makes me feel worse. I breed lazy children.

EZ
1. Started swimming lessons on Monday and it did not go so well. Spent about half the time screaming his head of and he is the oldest one in the class by far. I kept pointing that out to him, but I don't know how much shame/embarrassment works at his age.
2. Tuesday EZ decided to put on this man pants and things went much better at swim lessons. They changed from a girl teacher to a guy and I don't know if that is what did it but EZ was much more cooperative and was again today.

John
1. Still working hard at Dell. The economy obviously makes everyone a little nervous, especially when you are the new guy, but so far things seem to be looking good for him.
2. Loved by the kids. As soon as he walks in the door the kids are all over him, which is fine by me.

Me
1. The main thing I have been working on lately is weight loss. As with most women, after my first kid I bounced back pretty decently, but not so much after the second. As soon as Netta was weaned I knew I had to get serious and I have been counting calories and trying to work out regularly for the past 3 months. So far I have lost about 15 pounds and I am actually back to my pre-baby and almost pre-marriage weight. Now, my body may not exactly look like it did before kids, but some damage is probably irreversible without major surgery. At times I could cry when I think about how nice my stomach looked before, and to think I hated it back then too. If I only knew then what I do know.

EZ's Kickin Kung Fu Panda Party

2009-05-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

So today was the much anticipated Kung Fu Panda birthday party. We decided to have a pool party since it's so frickin hot here and our friends the Krizins graciously let us have it at their pool. Their apartment has a sweet pool with a beach entry and some little fountains. It's perfect for kids. This was my first time planning a party and of course I wanted it to be all awesome and everyone to be so wowed by how cool my cake was and all that jazz and while it was awesome, I think I was aiming a little high there thinking I could wow people with my baking skills. I knew I wanted to do cupcakes in ice cream cones, because EZ has become obsessed with ice cream cones lately and it would mean less utensils and stuff to deal with at the party. So I searched online till I found some really cute panda cupcakes made using mini oreos for the ears and the black part of the eyes. So I bought all the stuff and decided to wait till this morning to make them. That was my first mistake, because of course I ended up running late and then the cupcakes took longer to bake then I expected and the batter kind of exploded all over the place while they were cooking, so I had quite a mess on my hands and no time to deal with it. Also I guess my kitchen got a little too hot with the oven on, because when I opened the icing it was like water. So we slapped icing on real quick and headed to the pool to finish decorating there. Well of course all the cupcakes fell over and then when I got there I realized I had no time to be fancy and that there was no way I was going to be able to fit 4 mini oreos on these little cupcakes. So I did the best I could and here is what we got:

Not exactly what I had in mind, but good enough. Also when we got there EZ was being his 3 year old self and refused to get in the pool with his friends and instead wanted to eat the cupcakes and all the chips. Which he did.

Finally, things calmed down and we had a really good time eating pizza and swimming. Here is a pic of some beach babes.

The Birthday Boy

EZ'z Buddies. It only took 3 attempts to get them all kind of looking at the camera.

EZ blowing out the candle. And yes we are that ghetto that I just held it for lack of a better place to put it.

Netta especially enjoyed the cupcakes. EZ left one sitting on a ledge, which she found and destroyed before anyone could stop her.

In the end, despite the hectic start, it was an awesome party and I think EZ and everyone had a blast. Thanks to the Krizins and everyone who came!

Happy Birthday EZ

2009-05-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

EZ turned the big 0-3 today and I can hardly believe it. It's freaky to think about how much our lives have changed since he was born. When he was born John hadn't even started grad school yet and now here we are coming up on our year mark of living in Texas and John working for Dell. We had a coupon for Buca Di Beppo so we went there for lunch and then I remembered,
"hey it's EZ's birthday, maybe they will give him some cake" and sure enough they brought him out a humongous piece of cake and he got to blow out three large candles on a fancy candelabra. I wish I had had my camera. He was so excited. This weekend he will be having his much anticipated Kung Fu Panda pool party and he has already been enjoying his basketball hoop from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Steve and his new play kitchen from his Grandpa Bob. The basketball hoop arrived while he was napping and when he came downstairs and saw it he just went crazy. Unfortunately I didn't capture that on film either, but here are some pics from the last three years to help us reminisce.

EZ at just 2 days old

His first birthday. Like Netta a little shy about diving into the cake.

At 2 years old playing at my elementary school when we lived in Pittsburgh for about a month before officially moving from Michigan to Texas.

Finally, about to turn 3 and sporting the sweet smurf mustache while visiting John's family in Utah.

Netta's Weight Loss Plan

2009-05-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

Netta recently had her 12 month check up and she has only gained 2 oz from 9 months and she is still 6 oz lighter than she was at 6 months. She has also grown about 2 inches since last time and I had to wonder can she really have gotten taller and not gained any weight since 6 months? Then I started looking through old pictures and I realized yes, she was quite the fatty and has definitely thinned out.

Netta at 6 months

Netta with my sister Sarah at a year

So what is her weight loss secret you ask? Well the thinning out really started as we introduced more and more solid foods and less and less breast milk. Apparently my milk is really cream and obviously anyone can lose weight when switching from a cream only diet to a diet of whole grains, fruits and veggies.

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Casey

2009-05-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

My sister Sarah and her husband Casey came to visit. They are both looking at graduate programs at University of Texas. Unfortunately, things didn't work for my sister Meghan, who was also looking UT for grad school, so let's pray things work out this time. I want some family down here. They got to spend two days meeting with professors and checking out campus, but then they also got the special treat of getting violently ill. We think EZ got Sarah sick, but then we have no idea what Casey got. Sorry about that guys. Once their stomachs had settled down a bit they also got to check out the awesome Deutschen Pfest in Pflugerville. I really wanted to check it out because there were pony rides and a petting zoo. Despite the look on his face in the following picture, EZ actually did enjoy riding the pony.

I love this next pic despite it's bad quality, because it highlights just how pasty white EZ is.

And finally, Netta and EZ both got to enjoy the petting zoo. Netta loves animals so much she later tried to squeeze the heck out of the bunny rabbit.

Chillin with the Brown Fam

2009-05-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

My extended family stayed in Utah for about 5 days and then John and I decided that since we were already in Utah it only made since to extend the vacation and hang out with John's family. John is from a family of 11 kids and right now there are 34 grand kids and more on the way, so EZ was in heaven playing with his cousins. I felt guilty making him leave. We absolutely love living in Texas, but it is hard being so far from both sides of the family. I kind of forgot to get pictures of EZ with his cousins, but I did get some of EZ and Netta. It turns out John's dad has an aquarium literally right down the road from him. It was small, but it was cheap and the kids loved it. Here is a pic of EZ not quite understanding how to use a magnifying glass.

I didn't know if Netta would like the aquarium as much as EZ, but she was getting crazy excited about all the fish and the bright colors.

John's sister Misha had a birthday/cinco de mayo party at her Church and it was awesome. The kids got to play some of the traditional Brown family games, like frisbee dodge ball and EZ got to look like Hitler Smurf after enjoying some cupcakes with blue icing.

EZ was sad to leave and to top it off he got sick and had a fever for the flight home. Luck for John and I, the fever actually made him really lethargic and it didn't come with any vomiting or anything, so EZ was the best behaved he has ever been while traveling!

Netta's Early Birthday

2009-05-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

We decided to celebrate Netta's birthday a little early since all the family was together. In fact today is actually Netta's birthday. I know the blog says this was posted on the 5th, but that is just when I uploaded the pictures and then I got lazy and viola today is the 9th and I am just finishing the post. We bought her cake in Utah and it had a little trouble making the drive so by the time we got to the cabin the princess had fallen over a bit. I like to think it looks like she is dancing.

One princess attacking another.

Being a princess Netta didn't want to get all dirty and cover herself in icing. That and I had kept the cake in the fridge for a couple of days and forgot to let it sit out before she ate it so the icing was pretty hard. Oops.

Here is Netta with my sister Rachel's daughter Elly and my Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy.

No birthday post would be complete with out a flashback shot, so here is a picture of Netta the day we brought her home from the hospital. What a cutie.

More Fun at the Cabin

2009-05-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

The cabin we stayed at was pretty close to Jackson Hole so we went to check out all the touristy stuff. In the center of town there are there hug elk horn arches. Some people were pretty much making out underneath it and getting their picture taken so I guess that's the thing to do. We opted to take some pictures minus the making out. Here is a shot of the ladies.

Here is a closer shot of the guys.

When we got back we sang Happy Birthday to my mom and chowed down on some delicious cupcakes. They are from a place called The Sweet Tooth Fairy in Provo, and while they are to die for, don't ever do a big order there, because they messed up our order multiple times and never offered any kind of compensation. Not the smartest thing to do when someone is dropping $100 bucks on your cupcakes.

Four Wheelin' Fun

2009-05-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

So I have kind of been on blog hiatus for over 2 weeks now. That's because we took a nice week and a half vacation to Utah to visit fam and then it took me about a week after getting back to be fully functioning. I had to be careful not to blog about the trip before hand because the main reason we went for was a surprise 50th birthday party for my mom. My sister Meghan was graduating from BYU and half the kids live there right now, so my dad flew everyone in for the shindig. We were able to use my brother-in-law Brad's family cabin in Wyoming for a little family reunion. The biggest surprise was that my dad flew my mom's dad and her brother and his wife in as well. They had never been to Utah and my mom had absolutely no idea they were coming so it was quite the surprise! One of the coolest things we got to do at the cabin was go four wheeling. Even my grandpa took one for a ride. What a stud.

I was a bit nervous so I made John drive me around for a bit.

Then I finally got up the nerve to drive by myself, but I made my brother Ben ride with me just in case. It's silly but, I blame my fear on the go cart accident I got in when I was like 12. For some reason driving a regular car doesn't bother me but this kind of stuff does. It was really fun though and I think I am over it now. It's about time.

EZ was not so thrilled about the idea of riding with John but we finally got him on and he kind of liked it, but really it was more for the picture than for his enjoyment.

EZ Loves Netta So Much . . .

2009-04-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

. . . that he tried to smother her with everything he could find in her room.

John went upstairs to check on EZ and Netta while they were napping and he noticed that Netta's door was open and she was laughing. He walked in to find that EZ had thrown literally everything he could find laying around her room into her crib with her. I'm kind of freaked out by it, but luckily it appears that she was already awake when he started doing it so he wasn't actually trying to smother her. I will definitely be making sure EZ doesn't wander around upstairs by himself after he wakes up from his nap anymore.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning we had the traditional hunt for the Easter baskets. EZ kept saying the bunny hid my basket and I just thought that must seem so weird to him to think a little bunny was running around our house hiding baskets.

I grew up getting candy and not gifts in our baskets and that's what I intend to do in the future, but right now I would end up consuming most of the candy, so it's in my best interest just to get little gifts. Netta got these awesome sunglasses. She is so punk rock.

She also got these cute bunny ears. I love putting goofy stuff on her just for the sake of taking pictures.

I tried to get a nice picture of them in their Easter outfits, but neither one really wanted to cooperate. This was the best we could do. I am slowly getting sucked into the bow addiction and Netta's seem to be getting bigger and bigger every time I buy one.

Egg Hunt Take Two

2009-04-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we took EZ to an Easter Egg Hunt and unlike last week, he actually got to hunt for eggs. The hunt was put on by our HOA and I have to say I am excited that the HOA has finally done something. We have lived her almost a year and this is the first event we have seen. It almost makes me feel better about paying for the HOA. The weather has been so sunny and great lately, but of course Easter weekend was a little chilly and windy. What is up with that? I guess it is still an improvement from the snow we had last year in Michigan. I love this picture of EZ because the wind did something kid of funky to his hair. Very Johnny Bravo.

I don't know if EZ fully understand the concept of the Easter Egg Hunt because he kept running past eggs and then would randomly stop and pick one up and then run past a bunch more before getting another. Apparently he had very specific eggs in mind.

Here is a rare picture of me and both kids. Rare because a.) I am usually the one taking the pictures and b.)because it has taken this long after being pregnant to actually want my picture taken.

Down on the Farm

2009-04-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Last week for playgroup we headed to Crowe's Nest Farm. It is an educational farm that exists to well educate people. They have the traditional farm animals, but they also rescue all kinds of exotic animals so it's almost like a super mini zoo. Of course all the kids had a blast and I highly recommend it. The only bad part of the day was that it was kind of windy as demonstrated by Netta's hair in this picture of her hanging out in the stroller.

EZ seemed to like the baby goats the best, just like he did at the petting zoo we went to a week ago. Maybe we need a baby goat, but then again potty training EZ has turned me off from getting any kind of pet.

I realized that I don't have many pictures of me and the kids so here is an attempt at taking one of me and Netta. Kind of hard when you are taking it yourself and Netta doesn't want you getting that close.

Finally a shot of what EZ and Netta do best - shoving their faces full of those baby puffs. Netta must have known I posted on the blog about how lazy she was when it came to feeding herself because literally the next day she figured it out.

EZ Loves Pilates

2009-04-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

Today I was trying to organize the DVDs, which is something I have to do daily because now both EZ and Netta love to throw them allover the place, and EZ found a pilates DVD. As soon as he saw it he said he wanted to watch it. I thought it was weird and he would be disappointed when he started watching it and realized what it was, but he LOVED it. He actually watched the whole thing and attempted to do pretty much the whole thing as well.

After he finished watching it once he asked to watch it again, but I said he had to wait a while. About an hour later he was really insistent that he watch it again on "his computer" which is just the portable DVD player. So I set it up for him and even though he had to watch it sitting on the couch, because of where I plugged it in, that didn't stop him from getting a good workout. Now I guess I can't use EZ being awake as an excuse not to work out since apparently he really wishes I would!

Goats and Princesses

2009-04-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to a local Easter egg hunt. It said it was 2 hours long and and when we got there we found out that the hour that we had to be there was not when they were doing the actual hunt. Bummer. But they did have a petting zoo and other little kid activities going on so it wasn't a total waste. EZ loved the petting zoo and especially the baby goats. They were so cute.

Here is an attempt at a family shot, ruined not only be the funny looks on everyone's faces but also by the awkward crotch shot going on behind John's head.

We were finally able to capture a cute one of John and Netta.

We only had one hour there, because EZ had to head off to his friend's princess birthday party. The invitation said to come in costume if possible. EZ was only one of two boys there and the best costume I could come up with was this Prince Charming shirt. All the princesses running around in full costume gave me a somewhat frightening look into Netta's future. I just can't get over how it seems that every little girl is obsessed with princesses. And honestly it isn't forced on them by anyone. They really want to be dressed like a princess at all times. Anyway, you will also notice EZ's awesome dragon tattoo.

Finally the highlight of the party, beating the crap out of a life sized Cinderella pinata. It might be hard to tell but she is actually strung up by her neck. EZ absolutely loved this and didn't want to let anyone else have a turn. I think for his birthday I will get a pinata just for himself so he can go crazy and not have to share.

Our Lazy Baby

2009-04-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

This post was going to be entirely about how lazy Netta is, it still partially is, but I am happy to announce that one week shy of 11 months she finally started crawling. I was seriously concerned that her laziness would keep her from ever crawling or walking. I knew she could do it if she wanted to, but she just seemed content to crawl about 3 steps and then dive and wiggle till she got what she wanted. Finally today she was across the room when EZ started playing with one of her favorite toys and she just took off to go join him. I was so proud. Now I know it was in a way a blessing that she wasn't really mobile, but I am excited she can crawl now so that she can show more of her personality and keep herself entertained longer without help from me. Sadly though, this could mark the end of her and EZ's friendship since already today she was all up in his business and he was not liking it. So here is a quick video of Netta finally crawling. As you can hear in the background, EZ is seriously obsessed with "Shooting Star" and the 3 minutes I spent videoing him were evidently not enough.

Oh and I didn't forget this is still a post about how lazy Netta is. In addition to trying to get her to start crawling, we have also been working on getting her to feed herself. She can do it if she wants to but she is more content to pick up the food and then hand it to you so you can then feed it to her. If she only realized how much faster it would be just to do it herself. She is so lazy that yesterday at Olive Garden we lined up some little pieces of bread stick in front of her so she could try and pick them up and instead, when she realized we weren't going to feed them to her, she bent her head all the way down to the table and attempted to suck them up like a vacuum. Oh Netta.