5 YEARS

Happy Anniversary Jeffy! I'd do it all again.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas....

Christmas in Wisconsin was very white - and Isaac enjoyed every moment of snow he could talk Papa and Dada into!

Christmas with the Browns

The weekend before Christmas we did lots of celebrating with Jeff's folks and brother before we headed up to the great white north (WI) for Christmas.

Jeff and Brad took Larry on a guided quail hunt on Saturday for their Christmas gift to him this year. I know nothing about hunting and the excitment that comes with it, but they were all sure excited. Here's the boys all bundled up with their loot. Anyone know any good quail recipes?!

When the boys were back and got all cleaned up we took Joan and Larry out for dinner to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary which was on Saturday! 40 years, wow.

After dinner Brad's girlfriend, Angela, and I took Joan to see Mannheim Steamroller to celebrate her 60th birthday! The boys hunt and the girls go to the theater - not a bad arrangement if I do say so myself.

We topped off the weekend by celebrating Christmas on Sunday morning with brunch and present opening. Isaac is so overwhelmed with new toys he barely knows what to do with himself. And to think, Santa hasn't even come yet ;)

Too Much Relaxin

I wish there was too much 'relaxing' go on around here, but unfortunately I am talking about too much of the hormone 'relaxin'. While pregnant the body produces relaxin to make ligaments and joints stretchy. Which is helpful when in normal doses. When your body produces too much relaxin, as is now diagnosed with me, you end up with major pain and find yourself in physical therapy. That's right folks, my 'better than the first' second pregnancy has now become the worse of the two. I have been diagnosed with SPD (symphysis pubis dysfunction). Basically, the ligment/joint that is located where the 2 bones of the pelvis meet in the middle has become so relaxed that it is causing hypermobility of my pelvis.

Whenever I have to shift my weight from one side to the other I find myself in excruciating pain because there are no ligments properly working to keep my pelvis stabilized. No big deal if the simplest of things (like walking) didn't involve shifting your weight. Walking, stairs, getting in and out of the car/bed/bathtub, putting on socks or pants, etc. have become increasingly difficult and managing the pain has become a full time job. I started physical therapy yesterday to help with the pain management (we hope). I am also on a Tylenol regime and get to wear this really awesome (note sarcasm) support belt.

All I can say is good thing this baby will be full term in 6 weeks. That's about all this mama can handle. And big brother is not a fan of mommy's physical limitations :(

Christmas in Washington (IL)

I wanted to share pictures from our annual extended Brown Family Christmas round robin in Washington, IL. This year (if I counted correctly), there was 1 Grandma Rosie, 9 of Jeff's aunts and uncles, 15 of his first cousins and their signficant others, and 14 of the great grandchildren. What a party!!

4 GENERATIONS

My handsome boys

Jeff, Grandma and Brad

A taste of the wonderful chaos.

Isaac and Jeff's cousin's son Colton.  They are 5 months apart and really enjoyed each other this year!

We also took a moment to celebrate Grandma Rosie's 85th birthday which falls on Christmas Eve!

Isaac had so much fun running around with the other kids that he performed a Christmas miracle and slept the ENTIRE 2.5 hr car ride home and barely lifted his head off Jeff's shoulder before falling right into his own bed and sleeping soundly until 8am :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

We've certainly been getting in the Christmas spirit around here lately. Last weekend we celebrated the Feast of St. Nicholas with St. Nick coming to fill our stockings on Sunday. Isaac thought this was a riot and quickly remembered that opening presents is one of his favorite things to do.

 Even Molly found some treats and bright new tennis balls in her stocking.

After finishing the stockings we set about decorating our 9 foot fraser fir.  I still feel like picking out our tree on a tree lot is like getting a "fake" tree, but I suppose it will do.  I guess this WI girl still thinks "real" trees means you bundle up and head out to woods with a tree saw in hand!  Perhaps someday our kids will experience a "real" tree!  Isaac certainly enjoyed putting lights on our BIG TREE, as he kept yelling.

I saved the adding of ornaments until after the little dude went to bed in hopes that he wouldn't get an idea that we can take off and put on ornaments at will - so far so good.

Jeff took advantage of a rather warm afternoon to get our house looking festive from the outside too! (Picture from a much colder, snowier afternoon).

Bring it, Christmas.  We're ready for you.

June 4, 2011

Six months from today my baby sister is getting married to Tom!




That means that six months from today I have to squeeze myself into this beauty:

On this day, I think perhaps I should have ordered a bigger size and given my 3.5 month post baby self a little break :) Thank God (I mean Laura) for the empire waist selection!

The Haircut Episode

You'll notice that I've skipped right over the event of Thanksgiving in our blog. Not because we didn't have a wonderful holiday filled with family and friends in our kitchen, not because we didn't consume 2 turkeys and a ham, and not because we don't have a million blessings to be thankful for, but simply because I did not take any pictures....on purpose. The reason being......the haircut "episode".

The night before we are about to host 15 people for a big Thanksgiving feast, Jeff comes home from work and recongnizes that we forgot to get Isaac a holiday haircut. For those that don't know, Isaac has the thickest, coursest hair you've ever seen on a toddler. He gets his hair cut every 5-6 weeks on schedule or it turns into a helmet-type look (which you may notice is taking form in the pics from the last post). Oh well, right?!? So, I go about finishing preparing something for the following day while Jeff takes Isaac upstairs for a bath and bed. In no time at all I hear this faint motor sound and wonder what on earth that could be. So, I head upstairs to find my husband, clippers in hand, and my son in only a diaper laughing hysterically in the bathroom. I'm too late. The haircut has begun. Cardiologists go to school to learn to fix hearts. Barbers go to school to learn to cut hair. We wouldn't want a barber fixing our hearts now would we? And we certainly don't want a cardiologist cutting our hair. What presented itself post clippers/scissors/tears from mom/laughter from the boys is what we are now calling the Dumb and Dumber haircut of Thanksgiving 2010 - you know the one.

Oh Lordy. Thankfully our nanny also cuts hair and came with shears in hand on Monday morning to "fix", as best she could, the damage. There's only so much you can do with chunks of hair missing and bangs that barely go past the hairline, but at least she evened it out and we aren't making him wear a hat 24/7 now :) So, take this as my warning that all future posts of the next few weeks of getting our Christmas tree, going to see Santa, etc. will include my son Isaac/Lloyd with a haircut only a father could love.

Celebrating

This weekend gave us lots of reasons to celebrate. We celebrated my 31st birthday, we celebrated the beautiful fall weather by playing in leaves and we celebrated the start of the third trimester (less than 12 weeks to go till baby girl's arrival)!!!

"Helping" rake leaves.

Me and my babies.

Date night to celebrate my birthday.

Boo at the Zoo

In my Halloween post of last week I mentioned that the moment Jeff, Jon, Stephanie and I got to Boo at the Zoo with our little UPS man and little duck my camera died. Steph sent me these pics from the zoo to make up for my poor camera pre-planning!

24 Weeks!!

Yesterday marked a very important stage of this pregnancy and I wanted to share – our baby is now viable! If our little girl were to arrive now she’d actually have a chance at surviving (with some major medical intervention). How miraculous is that?I had always kind of wondered how true that was, but we certainly experienced it first hand this year with the arrival of Chloe Rose (Jeff’s cousin, Jamie's, baby) weighing in just over 1lb. back in May. She is miraculously home now where she belongs.

I had an OB appointment yesterday to mark the 24th week (6th month) and got all good news. My blood pressure is lower at this stage than it was with Isaac, weight gain is on track, baby measures perfectly at 24 weeks. Fab. I have discovered though that even with the easy and fairly symptom free pregnancy I am experiencing this time, pregnancy just gets to a certain point where its uncomfortable. I'm getting tired. This is a different tired than the first couple of months when I found myself letting Isaac watch Nick Jr. with some fruit snacks in the evenings so I could close my eyes for a few minutes after work. Think tired feet and back. Sore-body tired that even lying around on the couch doesn't seem to fix.

Halloween 2010

Isaac's stint as a mini-UPS man was a big hit in the neighborhood. And Mommy, Daddy and Uncle Brad all took turns playing Isaac's giant prop - a package for delivery. Even Molly joined the fun wearing her halloween pj's to the doggy costume parade (her 6th annual appearance) and scoring several treats while trick or treating. Halloween was a blast this year - Isaac really got into the whole trick or treating thing. I wish he hadn't been so good at it and collected so much darn candy though - I can't stop eating it!!

Uncle Brad - what a good sport :)

Trick or Treat

Isaac's neighbor friend, Lauren.

Too much candy ends with treat bag on head.

The weekend was made extra fun by a visit from our friends Stephanie, Jon and Jack from Milwaukee. Jack made a fabulous duck (who can resist a baby in a plush costume?!) and the boys braved our coldest STL evening yet for a trip to Boo at the Zoo (and my camera died the minute we got there). Having a baby in the house again was wonderful and reminded us what life is like before walking and talking and toddlerhood! Can't wait. Jon is a fabulous cook (I still have vivid memories of the meal he produced in our tiny townhouse kitchen to celebrate our college graduation) and made us a feast on Saturday night.

Isaac and Jack Attack first thing in the morning.

Steph and I at the doggy parade.

Dinner!

And just for fun - a look back at Halloweens past!!