Labor Day Weekend

Our weekend was fairly uneventful. We tried to spend as much time outside as possible. Sunday we went on our first family outing with Liv--a hiking trip to Devil's Den. The kids had a great time hiking around, climbing on rocks, and looking for insects. Liv enjoyed napping in her moby wrap while I led the pack, and Nate spent most of his time keeping the children from falling off boulders and cliffs!Everyone had a lot of fun and was thankful to get out of the house.




Monday, the kids and I spent most of the day on a blanket under the shade of our little maple tree. We ate lunch, napped, read books and played with Liv. Nate missed out on the fun because he had to replace our microwave which decided to punk out on us and anyone with kids knows that a microwave is essential! We ended the day with pizza and a movie. It was a lovely weekend.

Liv is born!...a month ago.

I realize that this post is somewhat delayed, but for friends and family located elsewhere, I wanted to post some pictures from Liv's birth. On Monday, August 10th, I went to my routine 37 week doctors appointment where I was informed that my abdomen was not progressing as it should (4 weeks behind) and the baby was measuring smaller than normal (estimated 5 lbs). For these reasons, they felt the baby would be better off if delivered rather than taking the risk of an inadequate placenta which could be depriving the baby of nutrients. They started inducing labor that afternoon. They broke my water Tuesday morning and discovered that she had turned from a head down position to transverse across my abdomen in a matter of seconds. They were unable to get her back into the head down position and were forced to do a c-section. The c-section turned out to be quite painful, but worth it all when Livia Jane Brown ("Liv") made her appearance into the world at 1:03pm on Tuesday, August 11th. She weighed 5 lbs. 8 oz, 18 3/4" long and had a full head of dark brown hair. Everyone was excited when Nate revealed that it was a girl, especially big sister Kate. We are so blessed to have such a healthy and sweet baby girl. She is already a month old which is hard to believe. The kids love on her non-stop (literally) and she has made her own little place in our family! Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement. We really do appreciate it. Here are some pictures from Liv's big day!

A Good Cause

Please take a second and check out our good friend's newest endeavor! We are so excited for them and the opportunity they have before them.

Moving to Africa

Girls just wanna have fun!

Kate had some friends over for her birthday this last weekend and it was non-stop girly fun! We let Will do the same thing last year, and it is amazing how different the parties were. Will's was filled with bikes, campfires, nerf guns and Batman movies. Kate's was nothing but giggles, silliness, girly crafts and modeling shows. She had a great time and continually told me thank you for her party.
Her friends...


The silliness...


Our princess...

The giggles...

On Saturday, we took Kate to get her ears pierced. She has been asking us to do it for a while now and we finally did it. She wasn't quite sure what to think when they were prepping her, she was shocked at the pain that was involved (even though I told her it would hurt!) and she cried right after, but now she loves them, checks on them and shows them off with pride. She's growing up way too fast!

On a boyish note, Ryan and Rachel had their baby boy, Brady Ryan, on Monday! She had a smooth delivery and a 7 lb. 10 oz. healthy baby. He is so sweet and loved by so many. I am glad I was able to be there for the celebration! Each of my kids talk about their new baby cousin and can't wait to see him again.
The kids and their new cousin...

Like I said, loved by many cousins and plenty of playmates (We have a houseful when we all get together!)

Proud aunt and cousin...

Congrats little brother & sis!

Kate Turns Four! (And other things!)

Our sweet Kate officially turned four this week (I say officially because she has always seemed so much older, and I have considered her four since who knows when!). Although her birthday was actually Sunday, we celebrated with family on Thursday night after Will's last t-ball game. We met at Chick-fil-a (still her favorite place) and she was giddy with excitement to have everyone there just for her! The presents seemed to be endless and she was in princess heaven! Here's some pictures from her night.




We celebrated the end of Will's t-ball season too. He loved every second of it and improved a lot over the last few weeks! Here's his special cookie cake.

We managed to sneak in a trip to the lake with our good friends the Walkers. As always we had a great time catching up. The kids loved swimming in the lake and Will was able to improve his skiing skills. Thanks Jonathan & Janean!



I helped host a shower on Sunday for one of my best friends Natalie and her soon to be husband Evans. It was a little toasty but beautiful. I am so glad we were able to spend some time with them while they were in town. We love you guys!

Swing set, Sparklers & Summer Smiles

For the kids' birthdays, my parents (Pop & Nanny) got the kids a new swing set. This weekend we took on the task of putting it together. With the help of Uncle Ryan's brute strength and Aunt ChiChi's sheer genius, we were able to get it done (and we only had to retrace our steps about ten times!)It doesn't look that difficult, but with poor instructions filled with holes, it was a little bit of a challenge. The kids loved it and played with it all day! I like it because it has enough swings for everyone...at least until baby #4 is old enough to participate! Thanks Pop & Nanny!




We didn't do much for the 4th, which I really enjoyed. We played around at our house, ate lots of things that were red, white, and blue and watched some fireworks from our front yard (redneck style)! The kids love sparklers and couldn't wait until dark to do them...I could barely hold them off until 6 o'clock.
This is the kid's spaceship (a.k.a. swingset box) that entertained them forever!





This is a cute picture of them before church on sunday...finally, they will all smile!

And this little girl is about to be four years old (one more week)! She always gives us pretty smiles!