whoa baby

Does this look like a girl who's only 4 months pregnant?!  Um, I don't think so.

Isaac's 5th Birthday

Isaac had quite the 5th birthday - we celebrated for an entire week and alas, here we are 2 weeks post birthday and he still hasn't let me take the Happy Birthday banner down in the dining room :)  I can't believe our baby boy is 5.  Unreal.  Just think, 5 years ago I didn't know anything about superheros, pirates, legos or cars.  I didn't know how much little boys love water guns, or bike riding or digging in the dirt.  Or that even with all that activity there would be endless energy.  I had no idea that beneath all the boy stuff would be such a gentle soul.  I see the whole world now through a little boy's eyes - and its awesome.  Much love to you Isaac Walter.  You're a keeper.

 On his actual birthday he requested pizza, the girls (his besties) and strawberry pie.  We complied.

Isaac's superhero birthday party - we all got a little carried away with the tshirts, and thrilled the little dude :)

We have been in our new house for just over a year now.  And I still have no living room furniture.  This came in quite handy as an event space :)  Perhaps I'll never get a couch or chairs and instead rent it out for Glendale events!

Calling all superheros!  And Batman.  We called him on the batphone to come for the party and lead the kids through superhero training.  Poor actor dude in his batman getup on a 90 degree day and 15 preschoolers.

While I Was Sleeping

Hi blog.  I've missed you.  Have you wondered where I've been for the last 14 or 15 weeks?  In a zombie-like state, that's where.  In such a state of first trimester exhaustion that getting through a normal day proved to be a very difficult endeavor.  Exhausted beyond exhausted.  As I'm starting to enjoy the relief of the second trimester, I'm kind of overwhelmed by the photo dump I just did from my camera on to the computer.  I'm torn as to whether I want to go back and post and add picutres from the last 3 months or if I just want to start anew.  As you know I am not a baby booking, scrapbooking, photo album keeping kind of mom.  I started a baby book for Isaac once - he's 3 months old in it.  I got inspired and started a 2012 photobook on Shutterfly after Christmas.  I got a few pages done.  It's just not something I enjoy.  And I have a pretty darn good memory so I keep all of those images and moments in my mind!  But I do realize that my kiddies are likely to want to see evidence of their childhood at some point in their lives......and that's where you come in my dear blog.  I have big plans to turn you into a journal/scrapbook of my kids' early childhood.  So they can look back and read and see pictures and hopefully see their joy (and ours).  So, a really good mommy would take the time to dump the last 3 months of events (2 vacations, Isaac's birthday, Jeff's birthday, Mother's Day, school year wrap up events) into the blog.  I haven't decided yet.  We'll see.  But as a start I'll share these couple of  pics from last weekend when my family was here and we went to our version of a family fued - Cardinals vs. Brewers game!

Baby Brown #3 DUE 11.12.13!!

I have had this post in edit mode for months now!  We're the kind of people who like to keep a secret this good to ourselves for a while before sharing with the world, so I've had 3 months to make observations that I needed to keep to myself but wanted to put down on paper.  So in no particular order, here's the things I've been thinking about while growing my third baby:

1.  I'm bad at being pregnant.  Like really, really bad at it.  I hate it.  In fact I hate it so much that I was pretty sure Isaac would be an only child.  And then I was 100% sure without a shadow of a doubt that Audrey would always be my baby.  It's fairly amazing how your own mind can trick you into thinking that perhaps it wasn't in fact as bad as you remembered it to be 2 years ago.  But guess what, it is.  Maybe worse.

2.  I am blessed to easily get pregnant, stay pregnant and grow babies to full term.  Beyond blessed.  So many people struggle with these things and I have not had to endure that kind of struggle.  Thank you, Jesus.  So while dwelling on feeling crappy is easy to do, I am in constant reminder and prayer of thanks for my ability to carry my own babies.

3.  Holy crap I'm going to have 3 kids.  But I only have 2 hands.  Yikes.  Jeff says we're going from man-to-man defense to zone.  This is going to be a challenge.

4.  Jeff always knew he wanted more kids, I wasn't so sure.  I had to do a lot of soul searching and praying about this.  There seemed so many reasons to stick with 2 kids.  1 boy, 1 girl, a dog....the perfect little American family. A family that fits in any car, at any table at a restaurant, 1 parent for each kid, 1 sibling relationship to nurture, 2 college savings plans that fit neatly in the budget, 1 bedroom left for guests.  It all seemed so mathematically correct.  And let's face it, I'm a math girl.  But somewhere in the back of my mind I kept thinking that if our family were complete I would feel it.  I would know.  And I just didn't.  I love being a mom.  I love raising kids.  I just hate being pregnant and recovering from csections.  I needed to separate the clouds from the sunshine.  And put it into God's hands.  And God only took 2 weeks to let us know what his plan is for us!

5.  What the hell kind of car do people with 3 kids drive?!  An infant seat, carseat, booster seat and double stroller to lug around.  I refuse to drive a mini van.  I just can't do it.

6.  I feel old.  I will be days shy of 34 when this baby is born.  That shouldn't feel this old.  Heck, that's still plenty young enough to have another.  Bwaahahahahahahaha.......I needed that laugh.

7.  In the waiting room at my 12 week doctor's appointment this week an adorable mid-late twenties mom-to-be in her super cute maternity maxi dress and stylish denim jacket asked me how far along I am.  I had to stop and seriously think hard.  Ummmm.....well.......let's see......around 3months?  Yes, 12-ish weeks.  She looked at me like I had 3 heads.  I asked her to be polite.  Exactly 1 second later...19weeks and 4 days.  Isn't that cute?  She still has enough time and energy to focus on her pregnancy.  I kind of wanted to tell her that in the third time around you're just proud of yourself for remembering to swallow a prenatal vitamin every day and happy to get through speech therapy, tball practice, gymnastics class, potty training, the parent teacher conference and the buying $200 worth of groceries on Saturday morning with 2 other kids in the car cart, without actually puking.  And without wine.  But who'd want to burst that adorable bubble of hers?  And with this realization I made a mental note to try my darndest to focus on this baby.  I would never want him/her to think they were just lost in the commotion of their older siblings lives.  I imagine this is going to be a difficult task, but perhaps realizing its a possiblity is the first step in making sure it doesn't happen.  This converstaion also led me to dig out my jean jacket from 2001 and wear it this week......heck, its vintage now.  Which brings me full circle back to #6.

Happy Easter!!

Big Girl Bed

When you find your newly 2 year old daughter curled up in her little chair drooling on the armrest when you go to wake her in the morning you sadly say good-bye to the crib.  Especially after she shows you the terrifying way she did it and you realize since she successfully completed this maneuver (that I can only attribute to her gymnastis class) a couple of times, the next time she'll probably break her arm or split her head open.  We cannot take chances!  So Sunday became Operation Big Girl Bed.  Step 1 carry this beautiful bed across the street - scored from my neighbor who was nicely storing it in her basement until I needed it as her 13 year old daughter decided she was too cool for it.  Step 2 take Audrey to PBK and let her pick her new bedding.  Step 3 order twin mattress online for next day delivery.  Step 4 pray to Jesus that she thinks its cool and sleeps all night.  Last night she slept pretty good in just the trundle part of the bed (did I mention this gigantic score of a bed also comes with a trundle?!).  Tonight is night #1 in the big bed.  Wish us sleep.

one TWO buckle my shoe

Happy Birthday Audrey Jane!!  You are my sunshine.  For real.  You make our family brighter.  You sing, you dance, you cuddle, you kiss, you laugh, you love.  You rock.  You are everything a little girl should be and then some. 

You woke up to a room full of purple balloons.  Purple is your most favorite color.  Everything has to be purple.  I personally don't care for purple, but hey, that's just me.  And you're you.  And you love purple.  And so it is.  Please note that yes, you are still wearing Christmas pj's 2 months after Christmas.  I got you adorable cupcake pj's to wear for your birthday but alas, the Christmas light bulb pj's were in the drawer so you picked them.  You think they are "special".  I have no idea why.  I think you're special, so to heck with the cupcakes and we'll let you rock the light bulbs.

Last night Daddy and I had to go to a black tie benefit with a silent auction.  I walked in the room and laid my eyes on this gigantic wardrobe full of costumes and jewelry and shoes and tiaras and more.  Clearly we could not go home to our birthday girl without it and I was the highest bidder!  I'm sure Daddy will be reminding you until you are 30 of the night he and 3 other tuxedo clad physicians loaded that bad boy into Uncle Brad's pick up truck in the valet line of the Ritz Carleton.  Just for you.

Here's you, me and Daddy at your birthday lunch right around 2:32, same time you were born 2 whole years ago.

And just for fun here's you, me and Daddy the first time I held you.  Boy, you and I sure look cuter today, huh?!  We were both a little worn out and drugged out from all the drama of your birthday and night.  Daddy looks the same - he's always cute!  Someday when you're older I'll fill you in on what I went through to bring you here.  Probably when you're a teenager and being mean to me!

And we ended the day with a little pizza, cake and ice cream party.  We've been working on how to blow out candles and you did great.  Next weekend is your real birthday party - this one was just practice :)  TWO parties for one amazing TWO year old.  We love you Lady Jane.