Leah is Mobile!

Leah is crawling!!! That's right. She is crawling.

Don't believe me?



Told you so. :P

Crawling is one of those milestones that parents look forward to, but don't want it to come at the same time. As a parent, I'm happy that she's learned this new freedom of movement. BUT on the other hand it means "CONSTANT DILIGENCE!" and re-baby-proofing the lower third of my home. I have to worry about outlets, tiny legos, stray coinage left by the boys, cords, stairs, and a 1979 banister.

"What do you mean "1979 banister"??!!" you ask. Homes now-a-days are built (if you have stairs) with balusters that are 3 inches apart. In my home, the balusters are 5 inches apart. What does that mean? Leah or any child who's head circumference is smaller than 5 inches might take a tumble between the banisters and down the stairs. Fun stuff.

Overall, I am ecstatic that my baby girl reached this wonderful-yet-tainted milestone.

Did I mention she likes to play on my iPhone? Yes, you read that right, ON. Watch and be amazed or be appalled by the 'indoctrination'. :P

Cute ain't she?

Isaac's Three!!!

It's been 3 years, 3 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes, n seconds-and-counting since Isaac's first breath.

Many thoughts speed through my mind as I contemplate this: Where did the time go? My baby is no longer a baby. I'm craving something smothered in chocolate. Isaac's growing in both body and intellect. Life keeps moving forward. Etcetera.



Isaac is bright, cute, energetic, huggable, sly, a great salesman, and still innocent--well not as innocent as he was a year ago, but still quite so. *sigh* My baby. . . *sniff* Enough of this sentimental stuff, I know you're dying for the cute stories. Here are two cute-worthy stories:

Leah is interacting more and more with her brothers each day. What does this mean? More and more of their Lego towers, brick bridges, and forts get touched, knocked down, and/or demolished. Isaac has learned quickly to use his body to shield whatever project he is working on when Leah is near. However, this physical barrier is not always enough to hold back the tide of Leah. When the tide comes in you hear this phrase shouted by Ike, "NO! NO! Leah-Leah!" I love how he says her name twice. It's soooo cute!

and the piece de resistance. . .

Over the past 2 months, Benjamin has been drilling into Isaac's mind that we were going to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday. Every single day Ben would tell Ike, "We're going to Chuck E. Cheese for your birthday." And every day Ike would in turn ask me, "When are we going to ChuckieCheeses for my birfday?" Two whole months of being indoctrinated by his brother. Two whole months of me saying, "We'll see if we'll go to Chuckie Cheeses. Your dad and I need to discuss this." The night before his birthday, Tom asked Isaac, "Do you know what day it is tomorrow?" Ike looked over his shoulder, gave Tom a mischievous smile, and whispered, "ChuckiesCheeses." There we have it.
However, we did not go to Chuck E. Cheese because we did not want to set the precedent of birthday party==Chuck E. Cheese. Ike was only somewhat disappointed. He was more excited for his Birthday candle and present.

Happy Birthday Isaac.



Warning: I apologize about my singing. It's quite bad, especially at the end.

Reacquaint Yourself

Please hum Jingle Bell Rock as you watch this video.

First Snow Fall

That's right the title says it all. Last Wednesday we experienced the first sticking--unfortunately it didn't stick for long--snowfall of the winter. Each season has its epitome of beauty. That definition of beauty is different for each person. For me winter beauty is defined as thus: After a good snowstorm, there's always a breathless awe as I look out the window--The world blanketed in fresh unmarred white. But enough of my lame attempt at descriptive writing. On to better things. . . my children. :P

Benjamin and Isaac were ecstatic.

They would, could not wait to get their snow gear on and play in the snow.

I think eating snow is one of Benjamin's favorite snow activities.


Isn't Isaac adorable?!



Leah couldn't go out and play. Instead while the boys played outside, she enjoyed the attention from Mommy and Auntie Anna .

Six Months and Counting

Leah is 6 months old! Can you believe?!?

I can't.

She has grown so much. She's interacting with her brothers, reaching for things big and small, rolling somewhat, and eating some solid foods. It's amazing how happy she is. She is constantly smiling. I am grateful for the light and joy she brings into our home. Her brothers love her very much. You can't find two more kinder and loving brothers than Ben and Ike. Here are some recent photographs/videos of her. Enjoy!












I love her laughter! It's addicting, isn't it? :P



She is cute. I was somewhat afraid to have a girl, but I can honestly say that I am very happy to have a daughter. I'm not afraid anymore. Woohoo!!!

Spontaneous Vacationing

Tom and I decided to take advantage of Cindy's mom's--who is the wonderful Rilla--generosity and go down to their condo in St George, Utah for a little R & R. This is as spontaneous as vacations get for us. We decided on Sunday, September 28th and left Friday, October 3rd. Jimdy and Lora Beth joined us for our little reprieve from the real world. We arrived at the condo Friday night, unpacked, put the kids to bed, and enjoyed a little Tom and Aimee time before the rest of the crew arrived. It was a very leisure weekend.


On Saturday, we watched General Conference (For those who are not LDS: Every 6 months, the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hold a conference for all members giving spiritual and uplifting sermons or talks), did a puzzle, ate lunch, watch conference, went swimming, ate dinner, talked politics, put the kids to bed, played games, talked some more.


On Sunday there was conference; and we went to Snow Canyon State Park for some hiking and nature appreciation. The landscape was breathtaking.

Enjoy the pictures.

We went home after a wonderful weekend of vacationing the right way: taking everything slow.

Month of Family Togetherness

Instead of cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry, vacuuming, disinfecting the bathrooms, or even catching up on world wide news, I decided I would use this 'free' time to let you--my friends and my family--know what a wonderful month September has been.

If I had to label this month I would label it: Family Time. Tom and I are working harder to spend more valuable time with our kids. "What do you mean by valuable time?" you might ask. What I mean is more direct interactions with the children. We try to do more kid friendly activities like miniature golfing, bowling, hiking, or even picking grapes as a family.

Here a few activities we enjoyed as a family.


We celebrated Grammy's birthday on September 11th.

Happy Birthday Grammy!

The Huggies bought a boat and invited us one Saturday to go boating with them on Utah Lake. The boys had a blast. Isaac didn't like the cold water as much. He ended up taking a nice nap on the bow of the boat with Claire. Ben and Mike had fun jumping off the boat and swimming in the lake. However, it took Ben some time to gain the confidence to swim around the boat by himself. Ben and Mike even went on the tube. Funny thing is the boat wasn't going fast enough so the tube submarined and dumped Ben and Mike into the water. But Ben got back on the tube and went again. I'm very proud of him. He was very brave.


We went miniature putting at Trafalga. It was a lot of fun. Tom beat me somewhat fairly. :D I should have won, but my tennis elbow started acting up. ;)


We went to CornBellys. Ben and Ikey really enjoyed the different activities there. Isaac's favorite activity was watching the chicken robots sing and tell corny jokes. Ben enjoyed watching the piggy races.

Ducky races: On your mark. . . get set. . . GO!!

Let's play in the corn kernals!!!

A Stab at Picture Editing

What did I do to this picture? :D
I know it's easy to spot. But hey, you have to admit it's not too bad.

Summer Lovin'

What a wonderful summer it's been! I'm sad that it's coming to an end. Anytime is a great time to bond with family and friends. However I've learned over the years that summer-fun makes those bonds even stronger. Those sun-kissed strengthened bonds weather the cold and harsh winter months of below freezing seclusion--say that 10 times fast. :D What a wonderful season to get to know those you love and have yet to love even better.

Summer is a great time for everyone and everything. Yessirreebob! :P

Instead of reading about our wonderful summer so far, you get--yes GET--to watch my rough/sloppy attempt at film editing.

Please feel free to pop some popcorn, grab a soda and/or mineral water, kick up your feet, and enjoy our family's summer.


ENJOY!!!!

So Much to Share. . . Part VI

It's been almost 6 weeks--5 weeks 2 days to be precise--since Leah graced us with her presence. So much yet so little has happened during that time. I'm slowly bouncing back into the haphazard routine of yore. This baby has really humbled me. I've had to ask for more help with Leah than with Isaac and Benjamin put together. She has grown. She's now 20 inches and almost 9 lbs. She's still beautiful and her personality is coming 'out of the wood works' now.

Here's the last six weeks in picture form:

I could not have lasted without the help from Tom (He is so patient!), my extended & immediate family (I have a fantastic family, FYI), my friends (without them my mind surely would have gone loco), my ward (I cannot express how grateful I am to be a part of the Canyon View First Ward), and my Heavenly Father (He truly lightened my burden). Thank you everyone!

I'd write more, but if you haven't noticed, I'm suffering from blogout. . .

Cannot

type


any




more .......

Introducing. . .

On the 29th of April, we welcomed into this world a beautiful baby girl:

LEAH KAY BROWN

7 lbs 13 oz

18.5 in




Mom & baby are doing wonderful.
The boys are ecstatic about their baby sister.

Daddy is surviving.



I'm sorry about the woefully lack of posts. I'll do better promise. But you're not here to read about my lame apologies. You want to read about Leah. . . okay you asked for it. :P

It was a fairly easy delivery thanks to Mr. Epidural. The doctor wanted to induce me Monday due to my elevated blood pressure and protein in my urine. I had two doses of Prostin the night before. It really didn't do anything. Doc said I was suppose to be in hard labor after the second dosage. Yeah, right. I woke up rested and feeling great. I thought to myself, "So if this is what hard labor feels like, then the delivery will be a walk in the park" :P We arrived at the hospital around eight in the morning. They started me on Pitocin around 8:45. Mr. Epidural and I became great friends around 10:30. (After going through induced labor for 7 hours with Benjamin, I vowed never to go through that kind of pain again. If I was in natural labor, I probably wouldn't use the epidural.) At 11:30, I was at 5 cm. 5-8 minutes later, I was at full dilation ready to push. After 4-or-so pushes, Leah came into this world.

Besides being a bit jaundiced, Leah is doing great. She sleeps well. Eats well. Poops well. Cries very well. Benjamin and Isaac are adjusting well. . . as well. Benjamin loves giving her kisses and calling her "so cthute". Isaac is obsessed with her feet and hands. Any chance he gets, he takes off her socks to play with her feet.

I thought adding another addition to our little family would be a piece of cake. I was so WRONG! It was so much easier having Isaac (family wise) than it is with Leah. Keeping 4 busy hands away from her at times requires 6 hands on my part. :P I'm sure I'll get over this learning curve. It's well worth the work and effort. I'm very grateful to be a mom and be able to stay at home with the kids. Not many families have that luxury.

How blessed we are.

Names

After catching up on Jenna's blog and talking with my aunt & uncle last night, I'm suddenly stressing about names. Girl names to be more precise. Around this time of the pregnancy *points to the baby timer*, we had 2 possible names picked out for each boy. With Benjamin, he was either going to be named Samuel or Benjamin. With Isaac, we had Isaac or Samuel picked out. (As you can see, we like the name Samuel.) With this girl, we have yet to truly decide on a name or even two.

A couple of weeks ago we asked Benjamin what we should name the baby. His reply, "Spider PIG!" Where he got that, whether it was off a commercial or he overheard Tom singing the song, we don't know. But since then, he is always commenting on how his baby sister should be named "Spiderpig". Tom insists that we should nickname her that regardless of what we pick. My reply, "No!" *rolls eyes*

When Jim was about Benjamin's age, he insisted that his new cousin should be named "basketball". I'm sure Sean is grateful that his parents didn't use Jim's suggestion. 4-year olds have such a rich imagination.

Back to names. I find that boy names are so much easier to pick than girl names. A boy can pull off any name. A girl isn't as lucky. For instance, if someone said "Bertha" or "Gertrude", what's the first thing that comes to you mind? The first thing/image that comes to my mind is an elderly lady swaying back in forth knitting in a rocking chair--You COULD argue that my baby girl will eventually be that lady in the rocking chair. If I said, "Paris" or "Lindsay", what's your first mental picture? . . . I find it strange that we associate character flaws with names.

Anyhow. . . Here's a short list of possible names:

Esther
Lucy
Chloe
Evelyn
Charlotte
Ruth
Sadie
Elizabeth

I'm sure by the time she comes, we'll have a name picked out for her. I just hope she likes it.

Annual Cabin Trip

Every year for the past few years, we rent a cabin/hotel (whatever seems fun) with our friends. The criteria for such a place are the following: needs to comfortably accommodate 8 adults & 8+ children, have snow, snowmobiles, and close enough to get to. This year we rented a nice little cabin near Heber City, Utah. Not a tedious or long drive for us, but far enough away to call it a mini-vacation.


We cabin-nobbed with the Hughes, Jorgensen's, and Jobes. It snowed early that day, and we had a huge snowstorm the weekend before. Lots of snow === lots of fun. It was a lot of fun.

Look at how much snow there's been!

To get to the cabin, you needed 4-wheel drive or chains. Thankfully we have our Trailblazer and not our tiny Corolla. Everyone was able to drive up to the cabin except for the Jorgies. It took the men about 20 minutes to decide which vehicle and who were going to go down and get the Jorgies (who were waiting in the lower parking lot). In the end, all 3 men--Tom, Cam, & John--decided to go. John was going to take their ford (front wheel drive with front chains) which had enough room to shuttle the Jorgies up, and Cam & Tom were going to follow in Cam's Truck "Optimus".

They left excited about their mini-adventure. I looked out the window about 10 minutes after they 'left' and saw Optimus still in the driveway. I thought nothing of it. I thought they were only a tiny bit stuck. Another 10 minutes went by and there was Optimus in the same place with Tom running towards the cabin to get a shovel. Someone was definitely stuck. Turns out, John was unable to make a turn and got stuck in a snow drift of some sort. Optimus couldn't get out cause John's car was blocking part of the driveway. After 30 minutes of digging, packing snow, and sly maneuvering the manly men were able to get the car out of the hole and somewhat out of the driveway. You're probably thinking "YAY!!! The car is unstuck!" Unfortunately, it was even more stuck.











However, it was enough out of the way for Optimus to exit the driveway and get the Jorgies. On Saturday, the men were able to get the Jobes' car completely unstuck.

The kids had fun playing with each other despite tears and misunderstandings. They enjoyed playing in the snow.

Noah & Ben

Mikey, Claire, & Isaac.
Ike would not sit up. He was a limp noodle in that sled.

The best parts of the trip were when the kids were in bed. :P

Bed time boys!

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching Benjamin and Isaac play with the other kids, but it was nice to just hangout with our friends without having to worry about ending the night short because the babysitter needed to get to bed. I enjoyed talking/catching up with the girls.

Tom had a lot of fun snowmobiling with the hubbies. There were no major injuries on the snowmobiles (thank goodness). From their report, the boys didn't get into as many 'stuck' situations like they did last year. However there was that ravine and Cameron meeting each other unexpectedly. :P

Unfortunately, I had my bouts of headaches, nausea, and just plain pregnancy annoyances. It didn't make the trip any less fun, but I'm sure next year it will be even more fun. I'm more than grateful to the girls. They let me to take a nap while keeping an eye on my boys. Thank you, girls!!!!


I can't wait till next year.

Oooooh!!!!! On our way through Heber on Center Street, we saw the coolest (figuratively & literally) tree in someone's front yard. Enjoy!!!!