Little Huskies

Now that basketball is over Khloe is picking up soccer. It is her very first time to play on a team. She is playing with boys and girls and even lucky enough to have a friend from school on her team. The team name is Little Huskies and they ROCK! Here are some pictures of the first practice. Khloe was awesome! She went for the ball and was a great runner up and down the field. The wind was howling and Sophie was only 4 days old so she sat in the car with her brother, Mimi and PopPop and her Aunt Alisa who were all in town visiting. Looking forward to soccer Saturday's...GO LITTLE HUSKIES!!!

Pictures of Sophie's BIRTH day

There's No Place Like Home

If it hadn't been for my log cabin living, natural birth giving, homemade bread making sister I probably never would have known about the option to have my children at home. My sister and mother of four was the first person to bring up the idea of a midwife to me. For some reason home-births and midwives have become a slightly lost "art" in our culture. When telling people I usually get one of a few responses, "What, why or... REALLY?!" All of these make me smile because if I hadn't been told I would most likely have had the same reaction.

After the birth of my first daughter Khloe I knew I would have every child naturally with a midwife. Khloe tells the story of her birth, "I was born in a bathtub in Arkansas." You should see the reaction she gets when she says that! Caleb was born at home with a midwife and Sophie the same way. Every one of my babies and I wouldn't have it any other way.

While it is painful it is not unbearable, while it may seem dangerous or reckless in normal pregnancies it is perfectly safe. While it may seem new and strange it is actually old and very traditional. While I know it is not for everyone I always encourage people to consider. I have had GREAT experiences with all of mine and to me there is no place like home.

Sophie Faith Brown

So today my second daughter was born! Her name is Sophie Faith she was born March 23rd at 3:49am 8lbs. 4oz and 21.5 inches long. Another successful home birth with the help of a midwife. She is beautiful and as of right now looks just like her older sister did at this age minus dimples. We couldn't be more excited. Her labor and delivery were extremely fast and in comparison to my other 2 she was a breeze. Welcome to your new family Sophie we love you so much and are so glad you are here with us safe and sound!

Best Buds

This year marked the first year of school for our little sweetheart of a girl. She turned 5 over the summer and started the beginning of September. I can't say I was ready for her to be growing up so quickly. Luckily we were able to get her in a program that has school twice a week and the rest of the work in done at home. We LOVE this school. It keeps us directly connected to what goes on during her day at school and with what things she is learning because we do half of the work at home.

From probably the second week of school I began to hear one name a lot. The name of a friend she made and adored. They ate lunch together, played racing games, he even got Khloe to play football a couple times. She started coming home telling me stories about him. " He can eat a whole box of raisins in 1 minute, he is so strong just like daddy, he tells funny stories and falls out of his chair, he calls the trashcan a dumpster," and the latest," he can pull a chocolate coin from behind my ear."

Everything she said was about her sweet little friend. It was strange to me that her dearest friend in school was a boy. If you know Khloe she is a girly girl. Her favorite color is PINK, her favorite thing to do is play animals mostly kitties, she wears skirts every chance she gets and would wear her "heels" everyday for every activity if I let her. She loves wearing jewelry and always carry's a purse. This particular boy is one of four boys in his family, is very boyish. Likes football, wrestling, Star Wars and legos, but for some reason this girly girl and boys boy hit is off. They both have made other friends through out the year but to this day they are still great pals! Here is a picture of the 2 of them taken at a fancy school party, March, 2010.

I'm a Daddy's girl

Around the age of 2 and a half I started to notice the difference between my relationship with my daughter and the relationship she has with her Daddy. It was about the time my son was born so naturally my husband and I divided responsibilities to make sure both children were being cared for. There are a lot of changes that happen going from 1 to 2 children or as my husband calls it going from double team to man to man.

I think it is a natural relationship change at least it felt like it in our family. I started noticing that she noticed when he wasn't home which in a Coaches family is a lot. She started to demand a kiss and hug every time he left, a tradition that still holds. She would even wait in the window and wave for a honk of the horn as he pulled away. She started wanting to talk on the phone to her Daddy and this is also when he started taking her on dates. She started sleeping on his side of the bed when he wasn't home and occasionally crying about needing her Daddy. She is and was his Angel.

He takes her to the work at the gym to practice shooting, check classes and get a Starbucks chocolate milk on the way. They go to the movie store and pick out new movies, they hit golf balls and then go walk around and collect them. They frequent the dog park and look up all the breeds they see. Khloe LOVES dogs. Sometime it's just snuggling or laying on her Daddy's lap getting her back scratched. This little girl LOVES her Daddy and her Daddy is beyond smitten with her. It is a special relationship, one of a kind, one I will never have with her and it's ok. I LOVE this relationship. I love seeing it develop and grow and can hardly wait to see how it grows in the future.

Here is a letter she wrote to him when he was gone the last time. There were a few letters she tried to erase but couldn't so just skip over them on the page. She spelled in her own letter Mome I am a Daddes grl. Or translated Mommy I am a Daddy's girl. It melted me...

PopPop would be proud!!

So my father is a former NFL football player turned Dentist! Amazing right?! Going back to school after a career as a professional football player, none the less he did it and with three children! An amazing man in so many ways and an absolute inspiration.

I came out of my bedroom this night and found this in the hallway. Khloe brushing Caleb's teeth, Caleb actually agreeing to the help and Khloe doing a really great job! I thought boy would PopPop be proud! Maybe since my sisters and I didn't go into the family business there is still hope, Dr. Khloe Brown... not bad...and she's a lefty too, just like her PopPop!

Park Days

So there are some great parks where we live and of course we love taking full advantage of any day we can spend there. This was the first really nice day we had had in awhile and we took full advantage by meeting up with friends and spending the afternoon soaking up the sun!

Here are my 2 monkey's!

can't wait for the splash pad to open!

My daughter the artist! Khloe loves anything crafty. Scissors, glue, tape, markers, colored pencils, crayons, she LOVES them all. I thought what better way to have my budding artist create her latest work than to enjoy the warm weather from our deck. With a glass of lemonade of course! She thought this was a very fancy idea and it as kind of become her little outdoor studio, weather permitting of course.

Not So Chilly, Chili

So the weather here is always a little strange. One day it will be beautiful, sun shining and 70 and the next cloudy, cold and 40. Not all year round but mostly at times when the weather is trying to change but still may hold on to a bit of what ever may be left of the frozen winter or hot summer. The past few weeks have been just like that.

Many of you know my life changes dramatically from October to March or as I lovingly call it, basketball season. My husband travels a good part of every month and is not home a whole lot. We always miss him and are always glad for the time we get together as a family, since for half of the year we spend a lot of time apart. Now that basketball season for us, not all has come to an end we have more time together. One thing we LOVE to do together is cook. My kids love it, I love it and my husband LOVES it!

My husband is a whizz on the grill, the BEST I am mean the BEST chicken I have ever tasted. Excellent burgers, great steak and even veggies. I look forward to this time of the year, he does all the cooking and we do what we love, hang out together with family, friends and what we like to call grillin' and chillin'!! Some of my best memories are made . This year we are adding to our already amazing grill days non other than my husbands newest mastered culinary work CHILI!!!!

We tested it out on a not so chilly, chili day! Kyan went to the store and even did all the shopping for this particular recipe ( I use recipe lightly) he really guesstimates which confuses someone who is by the book like me. However I do appreciate his willingness to veer from normal...most of the time. He and Khloe got everything set up and we began our own Brown Chili cook off! Onions, red pepper, lot's of red pepper, cheese, hot sauce, ground meat, and more Oh MY! With not to much time, but a lot of love and attention I must say he did it again! The BEST chili I have ever tasted. Looks like this grill and chill season will also bring something hot and spicy. Kyan's not so chilly, chili!

Back and ready to blog!

So because of my recent computer woes I have not been able to upload pictures or keep up with my blog. Well I got an amazing NEW computer and I am actually reporting live from it right now and I have to say I AM LOVING IT!!! WOW what a difference! The guy at the store actually called my old PC a dinosaur. It worked just fine for me but now I get what he was talking about and I must admit my old PC WAS in fact a dinosaur.

Anyway I am a mere 3 days away from my due date. People around me keep asking, "is there a baby," politely I say," no still pregnant." So yes my baby will be born soon but not yet. My parents gave me the wonderful idea of taking a picture every time I have been pregnant holding up what ever number child I was pregnant with. I am currently on #3 and most likely the final, as much as I hate to say final, it is. So here are some pictures of me pregnant with baby #1, 2 and 3(I didn't have a picture of me holding up #1 because the idea came along to late)

Relying on the unreliable...

So as luck would have it I start a blog and LOVE it, get it up and running, figure out how to upload pictures and share it with friends and family and put a background and fancy flashing things on the side of it, only to a week later have my computer crash and burn. It has been in the shop for a week now hopefully I will have it back today, but it turns out I will need to get another one very soon.

This is such a bummer not only bc of the cost of a new computer but learning, adjusting and getting all of my old favorites onto a new machine. BUMMER! Of course all of this happening when I am due with my third child in 9 days and my online etsy business is really starting to take off!! I love being able to do all of my online activities, FB, etsy, blogging, ebay etc.. and through this realizing how internet dependent I am and how lost I am when I don't have it. I had to call my mother to tell me the weather so I knew how to dress my children for the day...WHAT?! My sister, my wonderful, awesome, amazing sister took over answering all of my esty emails, and well my personal account, I am still going through all of those :(

Anyway for now I am back in action (kind of) with my husbands work computer, ffeeewww hello internet I AM BACK!

Caleb's Birthday Celebration

All Caleb wanted for his birthday was a WallE cake! For the last month it has been all I have heard about. "I'm gonna turn 3, and I want a WallE cake." WallE the Disney movie of course. The first time he saw that movie he loved it! I think he identified with the character. WallE doesn't talk much and at the time neither did Caleb. There is a lot of exploding and fire in the beginning, things I think he is just naturally drawn to, and music, Caleb LOVES music! He stops watching about half way through the movie everytime. I really don't think he has ever seen the whole thing. Not the point my boy LOVES robots, WallE, Buzz Lightyear and Botley a toy robot my Mother in Law bought him. So robots, WallE and Buzz is what he got! Along with a really cool gun that shoots an airplane out of it. Here are some snap shots of his big day!
















After presents we decided what would better than a little silly string fight with the whole family!
Even our dogs Roxy and Jonsey!







Then it was time for the WallE cake! The Bakery did a fabuloous job! Caleb loved it. When he saw it his eyes were wide and his mouth dropped, "My WallE cake!" He was so excited! After our little home celebration we went out to eat at his favortie spot Pei Wei for Chinese food! It was a great day!