Our Summer...

Since summer is pretty much over since school starts next week, I decided it would be a good time to do a big post in pictures of what we were up to this summer...completely out of order and randomly (thanks to blogger, grrrr!)! We did so much more besides our vacation, so I want to remember it all!!

As I reflect over our these pictures, here are my top 5 learnings after reviewing them all:

1. We have lost our tans. :)
2. I can't believe the summer is over!! My kids are growing up so fast! Bree is slimming up and that makes me sad :(...
3. Tara takes a LOT of pictures and I am so thankful for that!!
4. Me and Claire look so much better with shorter hair :)!
5. We love our friends!!!
6. BONUS - I love my family so much!!! It has been a great summer and I know we have so many more to come!! I am so thankful for each and every one of them (whether they nap or not!) and feel so incredibly blessed!

Here you go - The Brown's Summer 2010


Had many fun, full of laughs, girl's nights at Las Fajitas with my favorite ladies!!

Went to sweet Maddox's Pirate Birthday Party!

Went swimming with Harry and Georgia Kelley!

Went to my girl Amy's birthday party!

Spent some time on the lake with Nana and Papa and their fun boat!

Went to Las Fajitas with the family where they told them it was my birthday....not until January :)!

Had a fun afternoon in Fayetteville and went to Orange Mango...

Had a fabulous 4th of July!!!! Fun party at our house!!

Spent another fun day at the lake with the Welborns!

Another day at the pool with Harry! Four wheeling in our neighborhood!

Went to a Natural's game!

Spent Father's Day in a hotel on our way home from the beach...funny picture :)

On our way home from the beach we got to visit the Huggins!! Love these friends!

Shane took the kids with the Welborns to a Monster Truck Rally!

Happy Hump Day!!!!

2 HOURS....

I am blogging and holding a passed out Bree. I am blogging from my kitchen desk as my wireless will not work and I have to plug in. I am literally holding my breath for some random bottle of ketchup to explode or a drink to spill all over my company computer as that has been my luck lately. But I digress....I am holding a passed out, snubbing, Bree...

Bree will NOT sleep in her bed. She just cried and threw a fit for two hours, holding out and refusing to sleep in her bed for her nap. No joke, TWO HOURS!!! Now she would have napped on me or even in the floor for a bit on a blanket, but no way will she sleep in that fenced in contraption we call a crib. She threw her blanket out of the bed, along with her beloved paci. Everyone kept telling me and I knew from my prior experience with two stubborn little people, "Just let her cry it out a couple times, it is all in habit.". Yeah...not so much with B. I have never seen anything like it. Claire and O would give it up at the longest 45min, but not Bree. Lately at night, we have to tip toe her up the stairs after she has literally, mouth open, heavy breathing, limp arms, passed out on us (you know the sleep state of that), and then ever so gently place her in bed without her realizing she is actually in the trap of a bed. Then she wakes up by 2am, and refusing to go back to sleep. We tried letting her cry it out at night, but after 30 min and all three kids up, Owen bawling bc we would not let him eat hot dogs and cheetos at 3am, and Claire mad as hell bc her beauty sleep was interrupted, we resorted to just letting her, peacefully sleep with us in our bed. Now she is peaceful, sweating on me and having a good hold of of my hair and usually Shane's nose or chin. You can only imagine how much beautiful, sound sleep we have then. By 7am when the alarm is going off, Shane is sleeping through it as he is beyond exhausted from nursing the claw marks in his nose all night, I am punching him in the back (while trying to not wake grabby baby between us) to get him to turn it off before she wakes up, oh how you can feel the love in that bed :). Never fails though, as soon as the alarm goes off, Owen wakes up, comes downstairs, bringing us said bag of cheetos, and comes into the room, loudly asks for it to be opened and we are ALL awake.

So this afternoon, we were going to cry it out, get over this "habit" and finally start getting some sleep. Maybe, Mama be able to get some work done while she hopefully naps. WRONG-O!!! Even after three kids, things still surprise me :). Oh well, I will catch up on my sleep eventually...

On another note, Owen is officially potty trained!!! Will NOT put a diaper back on and slept in underwear last night! So proud of him and if you would have told me that was going to happen 2 weeks ago, I would have called you crazy!! Wait...then does that mean she will be sleeping in her bed all night and 2 hours a day in a couple weeks??? We will see, one thing is for sure, we never know! Gotta go....sleeping beauty just woke up and I have re-written this paragraph twice as she is trying to beat on my keyboard....in the kitchen, where I am waiting on Owen to dump pudding all over the keyboard as he is running back and forth teasing the dogs with it...

Happy Tuesday!!!

Claire and the Beast!

Last night, me and Claire-bear went to see Beauty and the Beast at the WAC! We went with 4 other girls and their moms, friends with dance class. We went to dinner first and then made our way to the show. It was absolutely FABULOUS!!! Claire had such a blast and laughed through the whole show! I love taking her to things like this as these are great experiences we will both remember forever....aaaaand maybe because I am always so proud of how mature she is and how well she behaves....not always the case at home around her siblings when she is bringing down the hammer on whoever got in her markers, make up, ear rings etc :)!

It was a late night and she was tired, but she held on so she could get home and tell Daddy all about it, seriously re-acting the WHOLE SHOW, laughing hysterically when trying to show him the funny parts! Shane and I are so proud of our big girl and we know she thinks she is going to "be on broadway" one day...sure....as long as she doesn't mind Mama living with her in NY :)! Happy Saturday!! I am off to console a furious Bree that cannot figure out why in the world she is in her bed in the middle of the afternoon...of all the nerve :)....

Lately here at the Browns!

So I am tired of posting beach pictures so let's just move on...I am sure most of you saw them on Tara's blog anyway and I am ready to blog "forward" :).

So let's find out what in the world we have been up to lately....

Lately, we have been really busy running Claire back and forth for dance. I have spent many afternoons working on my laptop in the van, in the dance parking lot while O and B sleep, while Claire is in her classes. We knew when we signed up to try out for Company, she was going to be a busy girl and she has been. She was able to take part in a great experience on Wednesday, learn from an actual cast member of Beauty and the Beast! We are going to see it at the WAC tonight so the girls were extra excited for the clinic!! Here is Claire and her buddy Olivia at the clinic ...don't you love the ruffle shorts!!??




Lately, my man Owen, has officially embraced potty training. As of today, we have had five full days in big boy underwear!!! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! We have had a few accidents (okay, quite a few) but we are making progress and I think I can say that he is potty trained (maybe??)!! He starts school in only a week and a half and then Tball and Soccer quickly after and the deal breaker for him was that he would not do any of it unless he was out of diapers!! I have to admit, this potty training boys thing is the FOR THE BIRDS!!!! While we were at the mall, I took him to potty in a public restroom....where he had issues aiming and peed all over my dress!!! Never had that problem with Claire :)....but I am soooooooo proud of him!!!

Lately, Bree is trying to walk!!!!! She is such a little mess! She will take up to 4-5 steps and then sit down. She will even be crawling and stop and just stand up, without any help! She may have some chunk a lunk legs, but they are STRONG!! She is all over the place and keeping me and Mom busy! She has developed a bad habit of not liking her bed lately :(...she will be in a deep sleep and we will walk her upstairs and as soon as she realizes we are putting her down, she wakes up and starts clinging in the likes of a spider monkey!!!! It's sad and kind of annoying at the same time, but we are working on it! She is talking so much more, but still her word of choice is DADA. I cannot believe she will be one in a couple weeks!!!!

Lately, I have been in full party planning mode!! Owen and Bree's birthdays are a week apart. My original plan was to have individual parties. Well this week, Owen's party completely fell through (I was not a happy camper with local bowling place here....starts with Fast and ends with Lanes) and I had to come up with plan B!!! I was so stressed seeing as his birthday is 8 days away!!! So we made a last minute decision this week to combine their parties and have a huge carnival birthday party in the back yard!! I am so excited and everything so far, has worked out perfectly and is going smooth with the new planning!! I am sure it will get crazy around here in a week and Shane will probably want me committed, but so far so good. :) I cannot believe and I want to bawl that my two youngest are going to be 4 and 1 so soon!!!!

Lately, I have been refreshing our house! I never want to move. EVER! I mean, my mom lives across the street, I would be crazy to leave!!! But, I need to keep this house happy and fresh so that we don't get burned out. I say we, but Shane could care less if the house had pillows, curtains ect, as long as it had cable and air conditioning and a place to sit late at night and watch the same movies over and over, but we sounded better. So, I have been replacing curtains, pillows and updating wherever I can. I totally re-decorated my master bedroom and bath and I love it so much more. I have also been working on my laundry room!! My terrible disease "cleaningmakesmeillitis" has been cured and I am no longer cleaning my house!!!! Since it is getting cleaned once a week, I am enjoying it so much more and I may even be found doing a load of laundry!!!! :) Maybe I will take pictures and post...

Lately, Shane and I have been really busy and stressed with work. B L A H!!!! Work stress sucks and it can really take a toll on a person! Shane and I were able to get away for a weekend for our 9 year anniversary to Plano and it was FANTASTIC!!! We slept in, saw a movie, ate good food and relaxed! It was wonderful and much needed!! I can't believe we have been married for 9 years! We have so much fun together and really try to keep each other from taking ourselves too seriously. It is so easy to get so wrapped up in work and trying to raise three crazy kids, but when you can just laugh (when your son pees all over you, or says "Oh Sh*t!", when your daughter is throwing the mother of all fits bc she did not see any reason for getting sent to her room for talking back or beating her brother with a play sword, or when your youngest baby girl is found in the toilet or eating dog food), you can keep some kind of sanity! Love my Shane and I cannot wait until our next anniversay...VEGAS BABY to renew our vows!!!!

Thank goodness it is Friday and looking forward to a fun weekend!!!