The Neverending Halloween

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

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

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

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.