Obsessed

My sweet, soon-to-be middle child has recently become obsessed with two things:

yogurt and stickers.

She is no longer allowed to eat breakfast with a shirt on.

By the time she is finished scraping every last bit of yogurt off her plate, she is covered from head to tummy.

Cleanup is a nightmare and she hates every minute of it.

But it sure does taste good while she's elbow-deep in it!

The stickers are invading my house.

She wants to put them anywhere and everywhere.

On my carpet, on my arm, on her leg, on the furniture.

I found one on the bottom of my foot the other day.

I wonder how long it had been there.

But it sure melts my heart to see her get so exctited about something so small!

Family Pictures

We went and had family pictures made this morning. It is a day that I always dread because you just never know how they are going to go. I try to go in without any expectations so that I am not too disappointed if they are a disaster and am pleasantly surprised if they go well. We usually go to Portrait Innovations for our pictures. They are resonably priced and I don't feel bad walking away if we don't get anything good. Plus you get the pictures the same day, so I don't have to wait three weeks to get them.

The last time we had a family picture was when Parker was 8 months old. I wanted to get a picture of the four of us before Baby Girl Brown #3 arrives to show what our family has been like for the past couple of years. I was very pleased at the results:

This is the best picture we could get of Parker and Eden together. Eden was NOT in the mood for pictures today, so we had to take what we could get. (Notice her bow! She finally has enough hair for a little bitty ponytail and I was able to get a bow in without her yanking it out!)

Here are our favorite pictures of Eden. Again, she was not interested in being photographed and just wanted to play with the Lego table they had in the waiting room.

Parker, on the other hand, was quite the ham today. He smiled, laughed, and completely cooperated during the entire session. Cory and I both couldn't believe it. Here are a few of our favorites of Parker.

A Great Birthday Weekend

This past Friday was my birthday and we ended up celebrating all weekend long.

On Friday, I took the kids to McDonald's for a birthday party and they had a blast. Even Eden was able to maneuver through the playscape and she didn't stop the entire 2 hours that we were there.
Cory's mom was nice enough to watch the kids Friday night so that we could go out to dinner and celebrate my birthday. We went to Chuy's Mexican restaurant because I was craving their burrito and it was SOOO good. It was so nice to relax and enjoy my meal without worrying about the kids. We even stopped at The Cheesecake Factory for a piece of cheesecake before we came home- YUM!!

On Saturday, my twin sister and her family drove to Cleburne so we could celebrate our birthday with our parents. We cooked out hamburgers, swam, and enjoyed birthday cupcakes.

On Sunday, my sister invited us to go to the Fort Worth Children's Museum with her family. I have always wanted to take the kids there and was excited for the chance to finally get to go.

The kids all had a great time! They enjoyed playing with water and digging for dinosaur bones in the sand.

The biggest hit of the afternoon was the mock grocery store that allowed the kids to grab a shopping cart and go shopping. After they finished their shopping, they got to use a register to check out. Parker loved doing this and I think that we would still be there right now if they had not kicked us out at closing time.

After an afternoon of playing, we had worked up quite an appetite, so we headed to Central Market for dinner. After a calm and relaxing dinner with 4 kids crazy dinner where Parker spilled an entire glass of water on himself, we let the kids play on the playground.

Finally, we headed over to Sweet Sammies Ice Cream for a yummy ice cream sandwich. My parents told us about this place and we have been wanting to try it for a while. They have 12 different types of homemade cookies and 10 different flavors of ice cream to choose from and it was so yummy.

Overall, it was a great birthday weekend. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family to spend my special day with and I am looking forward to what the upcoming year has in store for me.

You Know You're a Mom When...

you spend your birthday lunch at McDonalds celebrating someone else's birthday and you love every minute of it! (Except for changing a dirty diaper in a small bathroom without a baby changing station...who doesn't have a baby changing station these days?!?!?!?)

I couldn't think of 2 other people that I'd rather spend my birthday with!!!

Our Busy Day

4:30 am- We started our day really early today. Eden had to be at the hospital at 6:00 am to check in for her procedure, so we had to leave the house at 5:00am to get there in time.

7:30 am- They took Eden back to put in her ear tubes. She did exceptionally well and only cried for a few seconds, which made it so much easier for mommy and daddy to leave her with the nurses.

7:40 am- The doctor came in and told us that the procedure had gone well. We couldn't believe how quickly it had gone. He said she still had fluid on her left ear, which made us very glad we had gone ahead and followed through with getting tubes.

7:50 am- We went into the recovery room to get Eden. She was very groggy and still wasn't sure about what was happening.

8:00 am- We left the hospital. From start to finish, the entire procedure had only lasted 30 minutes.

Waiting for the procedure to start

10:00 am-We played outside for a little while. Parker was so excited to discover that they have started running the fountain in the pond behind our house again. When we first moved in a year ago, they ran it every day. Last winter, they stopped and have not started it again since. We were just talking the other day about how we wished they would run it again. Hopefully it will be back on again tomorrow.

Parker and Daddy throwing rocks in the pond

12:00 pm- After lunch, we decided to turn Parker's crib into a toddler bed. We have been wanting to do this for a while, but have just never gotten around to it. He was so excited and spent lots of time playing and reading in it all afternoon. Unfortunately, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep and the nap time that mommy and daddy so desperately needed was quickly forgotten.

4:00 pm- After nap, Parker went and got his haircut. He did a great job sitting still while Mickey cut his hair. We always take our portable DVD player and let him watch Little Einsteins during his haircuts, and he usually does great.
6:30 pm- After dinner, we took the kids to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. Mommy and the new baby were really craving a Blizzard and we hated to leave Parker and Eden out on the fun. As usual, they loved their treats and ate every bit of it.

8:00 pm- Bedtime!!!! A very tired Mommy and Daddy were very ready to see bedtime arrive. We had a very fun day as a family and were so glad that Eden felt so good after her procedure. We were worried about how she was going to feel when we got home, but she was a champ and you never would have known that she had been through anything today. We are looking forward to a fun weekend together as we celebrate Mommy's and Aunt Emily's birthdays.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

We took Parker to his first Rangers game last night and he had a great time. I was a little worried about how he was going to do after he spent his entire nap time rolling around, talking to himself, and not sleeping, but he did great! He loved looking around at everything and even watched some of the game with Cory. We really enjoyed getting some one on one time with him which doesn't happen very often these days.

His favorite part of the evening was when they set off fireworks after a player hit a home run. He got to see this twice and kept asking for another "boom."

Outside the stadium before the game

Mommy, Daddy & Parker in front of the field

Enjoying some nachos

I didn't get a picture, but Cory took Parker down to meet the Ranger's mascot. He gave him a high five and the mascot tickled Parker, which he thought was pretty cool.

We were glad that Aunt MerMer got to come to the game with us. Because of her unpredictable work schedule right now, we haven't seen her very much lately, so it was great to spend some time with her.

Aunt MerMer introduced Parker to cotton candy, which was a BIG hit!!!

Watching the game with Mommy It didn't take long before Parker fell asleep once we got him to the car. It was a fun night with lots of great memories. We can't wait to take him again next year!

It's a ...

GIRL!!!!!!!

We had our sonogram this week and learned that we are going to be adding another girl to our family! I am beyond excited that Eden is going to have a sister!

The sonographer was wonderful and gave us a very thorough sonogram. She was so good to explain everything she was looking for and told us that everything looked perfect.

We feel so blessed that this little girl looks healthy. It's hard to believe that I am almost halfway done with this pregnancy. It won't be long before we are holding her in our arms!