Baking with Grandma

This afternoon Cory's mom came over and made fall cookies with Parker and Eden. They had a great time rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies, and then decorating them after they were baked. Thanks Grandma for such a fun afternoon! I know Parker and Eden really enjoyed getting to spend time baking with you!

Community Helper Fair

Today at Parker's preschool they had a Community Helper Fair. They have been learning about community helpers all month long and have had a fireman, dentist, librarian, and policeman come and talk to them. They do not celebrate Halloween at his preschool but instead have a fair where the kids get to "become" some of the community helpers they have been learning about. There were 8 different stations and the kids rotated around and got to do the jobs of the community helpers. They also got to dress up like a community helper. Parker wore his scrubs and was an optometrist like his daddy.

Hammering like a handyman

Driving a tow truck
Picking up trash like a garbage collector (This was Parker's favorite station!)
Delivering mail like a mail carrier

Planting seeds like a gardener

Taking care of animals like a veterinarian

Decorating cookies like a baker

Parker had a great time participating in the fair today and it was fun for Cory and I to see him interacting with the other kids in a school setting.

The cutest thing that happened was at the end of the fair when they were lining up to go outside. Parker just happened to be the line leader for his class today. As they were lining up, someone tried to get in front of him and he said, "Hey, I'm the lead liner!" Such a classic Parkerism- I am so glad I was there to hear him say it!

Three and A Half

Parker-

You turn three and a half today. You are changing more and more all the time and growing up way too fast. Here are a few things that I want to remember about you at this stage of your life:

You continue to be a very strong willed, stubborn and high maintenance child. The terrible twos were easy compared to what you've shown us during your third year. Things are either really good or really bad during the course of your day. When things are good, you are so happy and fun to be around. When things are bad, you throw major tantrums and there is nothing that can make you happy except for time in your room to calm down. Your tantrums have been known to last up to 45 minutes but lately have gotten a little bit better (thanks to mommy and daddy being very consistent and not giving in to your three year old desires!)

You are such a boy in the activities you choose to play. You still LOVE to play with balls and have shown us that you are going to be quite athletic. You can hit a baseball halfway across our huge yard and are enjoying learning new basketball skills in a program at your preschool. You also love to kick the ball back and forth with daddy in the yard.

You love to read books and will sometimes sit with Granna for an hour and listen to her read to you. You know all of your letters and numbers and are becoming very curious about the sounds that the letters make.

You go to preschool 2 mornings a week and love your teacher and friends. I hope that you will always have a love for learning.

You are a picky eater and will not try new things. Your favorite foods are spaghetti and most fruits (apples, grapes, bananas). You will not touch most vegetables, especially if they are green.

You were slow to learn to talk, but now we can not get you to hush! Your vocabulary is constantly growing and you surprise us by the things that you know how to say.

You still suck your thumb, but have told us that you are going to stop when you turn 4 years old. We are definitely going to hold you to that!!

You are trying to give up your afternoon nap. You hate going to your room to rest (and usually throw a tantrum about having to go), but once you get still in your bed, you usually end up falling asleep for at least an hour.

You love to play video and computer games with daddy. You would play all day if we would let you and we have to be careful how much time we let you spend playing every day.

You love your sisters and are a great big brother. You love to play with Eden and are usually very patient with her. You help figure out what she needs or wants and help her get things she can't reach. You have been so sweet to Lily and are constantly wanting to give her hugs and kisses.

You are such a wonderful son and bring so much joy to our family. We love you and look forward to seeing what you accomplish during the next six months.

Meeting Lily- Part 2

Tonight Lily got to meet the rest of her family. Cory's mom made dinner for us and his dad, brother and sister were able to come over and meet Lily. We had a great time visiting and eating and I enjoyed getting a break while someone else held Lily for a few hours!

Lily and her Papa

Lily and Aunt Sondra
Lily and Uncle Steven

Meeting Lily

Yesterday was a busy day for Miss Lily as she had the chance to meet all of her family. I have been so curious about how Parker and Eden were going to react when they met Lily for the first time. My parents brought them up mid-morning for their first meeting. For Parker, it was love at first sight. He went right over to her bassinet and wanted to touch and kiss her. Eden was a little more reserved but warmed up quickly.

After the initial meeting we were able to get our first picture as a family of five. What a wonderful feeling! I feel so blessed to have a wonderful husband and three beautiful, healthy kids to share my life with.

Parker- what a proud big brother!

Eden and Lily- sweet sisters!

Meeting Granna and Granstan

Granstan, Eden and Lily

Meeting Grandma

Aunt Emily, Uncle Jon, Addison and Aubrey also got a chance to come up to hospital to meet Lily. What fun times await these cousins as they get older!

Introducing...

LILY CLAIRE BROWN

October 22, 2010

12:13 am

7lbs 9 oz

20 in long

We are so excited to announce the arrival of Miss Lily Claire! She was born early this morning after a VERY quick delivery! More details on her birth coming soon. Both baby and mom are doing great! She looks just like her siblings and is absolutely perfect!

Lily and Dr. Deem

Gerard Fall Festival

Tonight was the fall festival at my school. Although I am supposed to be resting as much as possible right now, I really wanted to take the kids and let them play some of the games. Plus, once the baby arrives, we are not going to be able to get out and about as much, so I wanted to take advantage of this time and make a few memories with the kids. We were also excited that Cory's parents were able to come and enjoy the evening with the kids. It's definitely one of the perks of having grandparents that live in the same town!

Before we left for the festival, I showed Parker the pictures I had taken from last year's festival so that he would have an idea of what we were going to be doing. He liked the pictures of the duck pond game and decided that is what he wanted to do first.

We got there right when it started to try and avoid some of the crowds and went straight to the duck pond game. Last year, Eden was still too little to participate but this year she had fun doing everything that Parker did. They both figured out very quickly that every time they finished a game, they got a piece of candy. I am pretty sure their dinner tonight consisted of suckers, M&Ms and Smarties.

I think both Parker and Eden had a really fun time tonight. Parker became very upset when we had to leave and cried the entire way home telling me that he wanted to go back and play more games. We will definitely look forward to going back next year!

Duck pond game

Going fishing

Soda Pop Walk

Daddy helping Eden with the basketball toss Pumpkin Pull

Searching for Pirate Treasure

A Huge Surprise!

Instead of throwing a baby shower for me at my school, all of the teachers decided to chip in and get me a gift card to Wal-Mart that I could use for things like diapers, wipes or other necessities I needed to finish getting ready for the baby.

Imagine my surprise when I opened this pretty card and discovered a gift card for over $250! I was shocked and at a loss for words for most of the day! I am so blessed to work with such a great groups of teachers on a daily basis. They really make going to work every day such a joy!

CEC Baby Shower

The girls at Cory's work threw us a baby shower yesterday. While we weren't expecting anyone to give us a shower for our third baby, it was so nice to be able to celebrate our newest addition and get a few things that will be just for her.

We got a lot of necessities like diapers and wipes plus some blankets and cute new sleepers for the baby to use this winter.

I feel so blessed that they offered to host such a wonderful shower and can't wait to introduce Baby Brown to her Cleburne Eye Clinic family very soon!

One of the techs at the clinic is an incredible cake maker and always makes the cutest cakes for every function. And yes, the cakes taste even better than they look!

37 Weeks

I am 37 weeks pregnant today which means that I am officially full term! The nursery is complete, the clothes have been washed, the car seat is ready to be installed and diapers have been bought. Other than packing a bag for the hospital, we are physically ready for our baby girl to arrive! As of last week, I have dilated to 1 cm and she has dropped a lot. My OB does not think that I will make it to my due date and with as many Braxton-Hicks contractions as I have been having the past few days, I am starting to think the same thing. This is a very busy week for our family and I am really hoping to make it at least until this weekend before she decides to make her appearance.

Although I am getting to the really uncomfortable stage of this pregnancy and I only have 3 shirts that still fit, I am a little sad about thinking about this being the last few weeks that I will ever be pregnant. I am trying to really enjoy every little kick, poke, and hiccup that I feel. What a miracle it is to be able to experience this process and I feel so blessed that I have been able to do it 3 times!

Pumpkin Patch

Emily and the girls were in town this morning and the weather was nice, so we decided to attempt our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at a local church. As usual, getting four toddlers to cooperate, smile and look at the camera at the same time is next to impossible (even with suckers as a bribe), but I was able to get a few cute pictures. At least their matching outfits were super cute!! Cory was even able to stop by on his way to work and get in a few family pictures.

Parker and Addison

As always, pulling the wagon around was the most fun part of the outing for Parker!

A few cute pics of Eden!

Parker and Mommy (He would not sit in my lap but did agree to stand next to me!) Eden and Mommy

Family picture

Riding in the wagon on the way to the car