Settling Back In

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.