Cute little Natalie

I don't know if it's easy to tell from these pictures, but our little peanut has changed a lot in the past few weeks. One thing that hasn't changed? Her mellow, easy-going nature.


Natalie's latest update: She is now smiling and cooing and staying awake for longer periods of time. She loves having people sit with her and talk to her, including her two doting sisters. She has a definite binky style preference, and has recently developed a great love of her swing. Truly. Mostly she is a delight to hold and snuggle and I second the girls in their constant pronouncement, "She's so cute!"

Kindergarten

Vanessa had her first day of official school at the beginning of this month. Turning 5 was a big deal because it meant she got to go to Kindergarten. So all summer we had been waiting for this day!

Here she is in her first day outfit (that she got to pick out):


Since her Grandma Brown was here, she even got her favorite hairdo (a braid):

Vanessa's new class, and her new teacher, Mrs. Marcum. We were lucky to get to have Vanessa in the one half-day kindergarten in the area (most are full-day), which also was her school from last year. We love St. Lukes!
Vanessa had an awesome first day and was not really shy or nervous (like she was afraid she'd be). There's 14 kids in her "lion" class, including her, and the majority are boys. She also has two friends in her class she knew before school. She loves showing us what she did each day, and now has a new interest in recognizing and learning to read words. She's so happy!

Here's to an exciting new school year!

Natalie Corinne Brown is here! She was born at 1:06 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs. 10 oz., and measuring just barely 17 inches long. As many of you know, we were a little nervous about the c-section, but everything went very smoothly (thank you all for your many prayers!). One of Lisa's biggest concerns about having the c-section was that she would not be able to hold Natalie right away, as she has done with our other two girls. I didn't realize that this meant I would get to hold Natalie for quite a bit of time while they put Lisa back together. I really enjoyed that time to bond with Natalie. As you will see from the pictures below, she takes after her sisters quite a bit. She has a full head of light brown hair and big, chubby cheeks. We couldn't be happier with our new addition!

Here we are just after the delivery.

Not 30 minutes after delivery, she found her thumb. Vanessa was pretty excited to hear that!

Lisa really enjoyed FINALLY getting to hold Natalie.

Those little eyes - one of them anyway - came open once we were in a dimmer room.

I love snuggling my little girls.

Not a fan of baths thus far. I don't think I've ever seen a baby this color. Poor girl.

She was ready for a nap after her bath!

This was probably my favorite part of the day. The girls were so cute together. Nicole's first question when she saw Natalie was, "Daddy, is she real?!"

Nicole loved getting to hold her and kiss her. After her first kiss, she told me that Natalie felt "lotioney".

Vanessa is a very proud big sister. She has grown up so much! She now sits in the back seat of our van and has had to learn to unbuckle herself. Today, before I could get out of the car, she had unbuckled herself and Nicole and asked if there was anything she could do to help. It is so fun to see how Vanessa and Nicole have come together with the addition of Natalie.

Ballet Class

Vanessa and Nicole started Ballet classes last week. It was so fun to see them strut their stuff in their little outfits. Here are some videos.

The Alamo!

Sorry Pee-Wee, no basement.

Lisa's latest triumph...

BREAD!!! She has attempted many times to bake the perfect loaf of bread, but never seems quite satisfied (I usually don't notice the dissapointment because I'm too busy stuffing my face...I like bread). However, after finding the perfect recipe and technique she was beaming. She barely got this picture before we all devoured both loaves.

Vanessa's Last Day of School

Vanessa recently finished her first year of preschool. This is her teach, Mrs. Jiou. She is an awesome teacher and helped Vanessa in so many ways. One thing that was a lifesaver for Vanessa and us were the "magic rocks". Vanessa became really afraid of the wind a few months ago and was deathly afraid of being outside. During recess, she would cling to Mrs. Jiou's leg the entire time. So, Mrs. Jiou suggested that Vanessa put two "magic rocks" in her pockets so she wouldn't blow away. Brilliant woman! Ever since then, Vanessa has thrown caution to the wind and has loved being outside.

Here is a book Vanessa made (with Mommy's help) for Mrs. Jiou. Lisa gave her this prompt on every page ("Mrs. Jiou is great because...), and Vanessa decided what to say next and drew a picture to go along with it. After a lot of frustration when things weren't just right (from Vanessa), here is the finished product.

Beating the Heat!

As I sit here and look at the forecasted high temps for the next four days, this is what I see: 103, 108, 105, and yes, 105! Here is how the girls have been beating the heat. As you can see, Nicole has taken to it a little more than Vanessa.

Ultrasound # 2

As you all know, we are having another girl. We have also decided to name her Natalie Corinne Brown. In addition to finding out we were having a girl in the first ultrasound, we also found out that she too has dwarfism and looked like she might have club feet as well. Since we have already been through the drill with Nicole, we felt pretty good about things. It also helped knowing that all the specialists she would need are here in town.

As a result of the dwarfism, we will likely have monthly ultrasounds again to monitor the growth of her limb bones. Today, we had the second ultrasound and from what we could see, she definitely has some shortening in her limbs, but does not appear to have club feet. We also got a few really clear 3-D shots. It was crazy to see how much her little nose looks like Vanessa's. With that similarity, I guess it wasn't too surprising to see her trying to stick her little thumb in her mouth throughout the entire ultrasound. Here are the pictures.

Nicole turns 3!

Yesterday was Nicole's birthday, and since we did joint presents (backyard toys) for our girls this year, we thought the best way to celebrate the actual day was to just spend all day doing what she wanted to do.

Here were Nicole's food requests for the day:

Breakfast-- waffles and kiwi

Lunch-- Rosa's (the only restaurant to go to...in her opinion). A mexican restaurant where we always get fresh flour tortillas with our meal.

Dinner-- Cornbread. Only. She is nuts over this. When I asked what else she wanted, she just insisted on cornbread so we just gave a few of her usual food picks like hot dogs. (Nothing exciting for adults but she loved it.)

We also attempted a few parks, and when plans were thwarted, Petsmart was her place of choice (y'know, our day was planned by our 3-year-old!). She was a little sad to find out they don't keep dogs there, but she had fun with the fish, kittens, birds, and rats (she said one was named Lisa like me...sa-weet). We also went "swimming" and played in the sand and on the swings in our backyard and just enjoyed hanging out with daddy. It was a really nice kick-back day.

The highlight, of course, were the presents from grandparents and cake. Here are a few shots:

Nicole interpreted her birthday check: "It says, 'I love you, Niccoli. Love, Grandma-mama and Grandpapa." Then when she learned she could pick the toy, it became even cooler.
So excited! I love the foot especially! She just loves "reading" books to herself.
What? My own Barbie? She couldn't believe it!
She had to make sure it was just for her!
And then the kitchen with miniature food came out, and all else was forgotten...
until she was ready for cake.
Her pick...can you tell what her favorite animal is? I tried to make him look a little like her Ruff-ruff that she sleeps with at night. I think the tongue made her giggle.
The cake was taller than I realized, so she got a boost to blow out candles.
Mmmm! The best part of birthdays. Wanna know which part the girls wanted to eat? That's right, the chocolate coated ears.
Here's a chocolate kiss from the birthday girl!

Writing Conference in Horseshoe Bay

Last week, we attended a writing conference in Horseshoe Bay. It was sponsored by the grant I’m working for, which equated to an all-expenses-paid vacation…for the girls. I also had a lot of fun. We had 4 faculty members from different universities (University of Minnesota, East Carolina University, University of Central Florida, and Texas Tech), as well as myself and another student I work with. It was an awesome experience to work with these guys, brainstorm about marriage education, and crank out 3 publications over the course of a few days. Although we worked hard, we also played hard. The girls had a blast swimming, playing in the sand, seeing exotic birds, etc. Here are some shots of the girls.

Lisa will probably kill me when she sees I posted this one, but I can't help it...she's hot!

This is a salt water pool.

I thought this hot tub was AWESOME!

Another one of the pools at night.

The drive home was also quite amazing. We learned all about Texas wildflowers. Here are some pictures of the drive home.