We're not in Kansas anymore.

Last weekend we loaded up the kiddos and our swimsuits and road tripped with the neighbors to Kansas City to the Great Wolf Lodge. 200,000 gallons of indoor water park fun for 3 days! You would have thought we were at Disney World the kids had such a blast.

Isaac busted his lip open on a water slide, which slowed him down for like 1/2 a second. Here he's trying to show his boo-boo.

A stop at the T-Rex restaurant was certainly in order for my dino-loving litte dude.

Pajama story time in the lobby with Megan and Lauren, Isaac's best buds.

Nighty-night kiddos.

And clearly I couldn't leave Kansas without these beauties for my girl!

Happy 1st Birthday Lady Jane!

Dear Audrey Jane,

Today you turn 1 year old. This year has flown by in the blink of an eyelash. You have flown through each stage of “babyhood” faster than the last. You are always doing things that we weren’t prepared for you to do – as if you silently practice them while we aren’t looking and then surprise us! All of a sudden one day you rolled over, just like that. Then without us even showing you how you were sitting on your own. Then without warning you began pulling up onto things and cruising along the furniture as if you always have. You decided you were too big for pureed foods and went on strike, wanting only to eat things you could pick up and feed yourself. Such an independent girl. Such a sweet girl.

Audrey, you are an absolute delight and we are so lucky to be your parents. Everyone (and I mean everyone) comments on your sweet disposition, your constant smiles and laughter and your general cuteness. You are such an easy baby. You rarely fuss, unless you can see some food on the counter that you can’t reach! You love to eat – anything and everything, and lots of it. You would much rather play with your big brother’s toys than your own – much to his dismay! You are very attached to your “lovey” – a bunny blankie that your nanny, Maggie, gave to you when you were born. You cannot sleep without your lovey and your paci. Oh how you love to sleep, generally 13 straight hours – Mommy’s girl! You love to dance – if you hear a melody of any kind you are bopping around and bobbing your head and twisting that chubby little torso of yours. You wave like a beauty queen in a parade. You only have 2 words – Dada and Hi. You hold any object you can find up to your ear and say Hi – perhaps a glimpse into your future and your need for your own cell phone plan! Much to your daddy’s delight you will not wear any bows in your hair. I’ve tried every kind and I try to trick you into being distracted so I can put them in. You pull them right out and hand them to me with that 4-toothed grin like it’s a game!

I apologize in advance to you Auds, you live in a house full of majorly Type A personalities (me, Daddy and Isaac). You are so easy going and opposite of us – I’m sure you’ll wonder when you get older what in the world is wrong with us. You’ll tell us to chill out. We probably will because it’s coming from you and we adore you.

So today is all about you. We’ll gather your gigantic collection of stuffed animals and line them up for a party. We’ll remember back to last year when we walked into that hospital having no idea what the soul of our little girl would be like. And now we know it is better than we could have imagined it to be.

All our love,

Mommy and Daddy

It's exhausting to be 1!!

Sledding

We took advantage of 3inches of snow after work on Monday for some sledding action with the neighbor girls. Good thing - because it was all melted by lunch time yesterday and today we're getting thunderstorms. That's St. Louis for you.

Armstrong Drive

We bought a house!!! Well, sort of. We have an accepted offer on a house!!! Pending inspection, appraisal, survey, etc. we close on April 3. The day has come......the downtown Browns need to leave the urban life and put down roots in the suburbs. We're trading in our large, 110 year old house for this little gem in the burbs. It's in a fabulous, family-oriented neighborhood with an exceptional public elementary school choice and within 10 minutes to Jeff's new hospital. Hard to pass that up. There's so much we'll miss about city living and our house now, but we'll sleep better (literally with the lack of sirens, buses, gunshots and other normal city noise) knowing our babies are safe to walk/run/ride/scoot down the street and around the block - or on our cute little circular drive. Glendale - I hope you're ready for us.

Pinkalicious

I'm laughing at this photo because I realize maybe, just maybe, Jeff is right. Audrey *does* wear too much pink! I blame this on having a boy first.

February

February? Already? You can't be serious. Does someone want to tell me where the last 12 months went? My baby turns 1 in February....it can't be time.


How did we go from this:


to this:
http://youtu.be/9ecryECBPxs




What a blur. I was sitting in our oversized chair this morning cuddling that sweet baby while she finished her bottle of milk and Isaac came over as he often does and curled up next to us. He asked me to put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and I obliged. He put his head on my shoulder to watch. There we sat, for a very brief moment of time- where I had a second to reflect on being a family of 4 for the last year - before Audrey started babbling so Isaac yelled "I can't hear my show!" and pushed her to which she responded by kicking him and I realized we were all sitting a little too close for comfort at 7:12 am. February, crap, I'm not ready for you.