Thanksgiving Point

Back in October Lynsey and Matt came to visit and we went with them and Natalie and Brian to the Thanksgiving Point petting zoo with all 8 kids. We were our own zoo but the  4 older boys had fun running around. I love when Cohen gets to play with his cousins and I'm so grateful to have family close by so that he can grow up with them and be best friends with all his cousins.

Cohen, Blake, Carson and Gavin

cute boys! 

Cohen showing Blake how to break into the duck pond.

this is what you get when you try to break into that duck pond

Family Pictures

My good friend Leanne was kind enough to take a few pictures of our new family of 4 before we lost all the beautiful Autumn leaves. She did an amazing job, Cohen however was not so cooperative but she was able to capture a few of him looking pretty cute.

And here is Cohen letting us know that he IS NOT having a good time and would like to go home now! haha

Fall

With snow now on the ground I'm longing for the beautiful fall days we got to enjoy when we first moved here. I know Cohen misses playing outside everyday and I miss the sun and warmth. Good thing we get to go to AZ in one week for a 72 degree Christmas!

Addison's Blessing

Over Thanksgiving we were able to go to Arizona and bless Addison in my parents home. I love being able to do baby blessings at home and have all of your close family there in such a personal and loving place. Betty made the most gorgeous dress for Addison and Paul's blessing was really special. We were so glad to have many of our siblings there along with parents and grandparents.

BOOtastic

Its official...I NEED to start using an actual camera instead of my iPhone for every single occasion. So this was Cohen's first time trick or treating and he caught on fast. I think Jerry Seinfeld said it best in his skit when he was talking about Halloween... EVERYONE WE KNOW IS JUST GIVING OUT CANDY?! How do I get it? Where do we go? What do I have to do?!....I can wear that.

As you can see he was SUPER excited to be taking pictures (please sense the sarcasm)

The very first house with Grandma and cousin Cash

This is the only picture with all of us from the ward Halloween party. Addison originally had a really cute tutu on but she just wasn't havin it after a few minutes. 

2 Months

Addison went to her 2 month appt on Monday and is now 12 lbs 12 oz and 23 in long. Which puts her pretty much right on target with Cohen at that age, he was 12 lbs 13 oz and 25 in long. I do not make small babies folks. I did This post when Cohen was 2 months old and it sounds just like Addison. I have been blessed with 2 amazingly awesome babies that are very content and happy. I am by no means complaining but I think that Addison is narcoleptic! She eats in 10 minutes flat and then sleeps 3 1/2 hours until her next feeding. She seriously has never been awake for more than 2 hours straight. She only wakes up once per night, almost exactly at 4 am every time. I am LOVING having a cute little girl to dress and put headbands and bows on. Paul is a little worried for his bank account as Addison gets older because I tell him about all the adorable things I wanted to buy at the store for her. She's the doll I was never interested in having as a kid because I was too busy playing with nerf footballs and climbing trees but now Im all about the cutesy girly stuff. 

And here's a little preview of Cohen's Halloween getup 

Oompa loompa and the White Rabbit (who was late for a very important date!)

The mini man in my life

It feels like just a few months ago you were this small

But now you are my giant (almost) 2 year old and I can't believe how fast the time flew by and how much you seem to sponge up and learn every day!

-You are 21 months old over 3 feet tall and 34 pounds

- Sometimes I worry people think you are a dumb 3 year old because you are so dang ginormous. Nope folks, he's  not even 2 yet; just a future 6'4'' 245 lb NFL quarterback. 

- You really ARE super smart and already know your ABC's...at least to H :) the rest is a little jumbled, but they're all in there! 

- When I'm stressed out at the end of the day because you can be such a handful, you know how to melt my heart by saying "I yuh you, mama" 

- Half the time you say Sassy, instead of Sorry. Cracks me up everytime. 

- When you hit someone or something, you immediately follow it up by saying "Not nice". Well at least you know its not polite. 

- You adore your Daddy and cry just about every time he has to leave and all day long you will say "Daddy school" 

- When you run, your cheeks jiggle. Its awesome. 

- Your unexpected blue eyes are beautiful, and paired with your tow head; who wouldn't love you?

- You love to collect sticks, leebs (leaves), and rocks. You're definitely all boy!

- You still give open mouth kisses but we'll take 'em any way they come. 

- Addie doesn't so much appreciate the open mouth kisses but I love to see you be sweet to your little sister.

- She's not Addison or even Addie to you. Its always Addie Seoul or Addie Girl

- Every time she cries your head snaps over and you let me know "Addie Seoul crying"

- Your favorite toys are books...this future quarterback is going to Harvard folks. 

- You love to sing and know a few songs from the radio, but your current favorite tune is "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam". Mostly because you get to jump up and down while singing, "Jesus...sunBEAM!"

- Dad has made you think your name is either ManBear or Co Co Bean

- You're happy to hang out in your crib for over 1/2 an hour in the morning just shooting the breeze with you, yourself and Cohen. This too is totally awesome to your currently sleep deprived mama. 

- You learned how to open doors about 6 months ago, could turn on and off lights then too thanks to your height and figured out the so called "child locks" on our cabinets the day we moved into the new apartment. 

And I can't wait to get you out of bed every morning just to see what you'll learn, say and do because I wouldn't trade you for anything in the world because you and Addison are my world. This mama loves you to the moon the sky and the stars. 

1 Month old!!

The last month of pregnancy feels like its 85 weeks but as soon as you have the baby the months just fly by! Its so not fair. She is an absolute angel, just like Cohen was until about 2 months ago :) She's already doing 6 1/2 hour stretches at night and pretty much just sleeps all day long too. She's just barely started to smile but I haven't been able to capture proof yet. I just love dressing her up and putting headbands and bows on her. A girl is so much more fun to shop for and dress! Our little Addie Seoul is now 5 1/2 weeks old but here are some pics I took for her 1 month mark.

Cohen does a lot of patting her head and kissing her toes. Pretty cute stuff. He calls her Addie Seoul and loves to run in and see her in the morning or whenever she makes squeaks and noises. He's going to be a good big brother....when he's not trying to smother her! :)

Help mom!

and of course Cohen had to get in on the action but wouldn't cooperate for a cute picture :) 

Cascade Springs

Cohen is craziness unless he gets out of the house at least once a day, so on Sunday we decided to take a drive up the Alpine Loop. We stopped at Cascade Springs and then drove through Heber and back through the Provo Canyon. Fall is in full swing here and it is absolutley gorgeous! Cohen loved running around and sticking his hands in the water. He tried to climb in a few times and got really close but we managed to keep him dry!

Just to prove Addison was there too! 

Life as a family of 4!

We finally have internet here in grand ole Provo so I can post a few pictures of what we've been up to! Its not much, considering Addison is only 24 days old and Cohen has been sick the last few days. We're LOVING Utah though. I feel like Cohen will have the opportunity to have a lot of little friends here and there are way more friends and moms for me to hang out with. We've also loved having Paul home more, since he just has 3 classes and no school on Fridays, so we get to have 3 day weekends and lots of family time. Both of which have been very helpful to this new mom!
Adjusting to 2 kids has not been as difficult as I was imagining and Cohen has been really great with Addison, for which I'm grateful. We've only had a few pulling and squeezing incidents but just because he doesn't know his own strength. It took me 3 weeks but I finally snapped a few shots of the two of them together. Now I just need to work on getting a "family" photo of the 4 of us!
I'll post more later, but for now, here are a few cute shots.

Addie's 1st bath

This is Cohen giving "loves". He hugs and says "ohhhh" :)

Cohen playing at the park. Definitely not missing the weather in the desert!

I FINALLY got my BS 8 years after starting school. Better late than never right?! haha Mom and Dad are pretty happy :)

Visiting Daddy Bryan's grave. Cohen thought it was pretty fun to run around and play.

hanging out in a tree at a park near our house.

Cohen at 10 days and Addison at 2 weeks. Maybe they do look more alike than I first thought? What's funny is they both have the same blue eyes, I love it! but I'm not sure where it came from, Paul and I are both hazel!

4 Generations

The Labor and Delivery Story

This is mostly for my own information so I can remember what happened on this big day, but I always like hearing other friends stories too so here ya go!
So I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday the 25th at 6am, we showed up at the hospital, got checked in and into a room by about 6:30a. I was a little nervous about this delivery because I was not loving my Dr., to say the least, and I hadn't heard great things about the hospital I was delivering at, so I was preparing myself for what was to come. When I first got to the hospital I was about 70% effaced and only at a 1 so I had a ways to go with the induction. Around 9:15a they finally gave me the pitocin and by noon I was dilated to a 2, meaning things were going a bit slow. My nurse knew all about my doctor and agreed with me that she would rather not have her in the room either! haha So she said she would get me as far as she could before she called the doctor. My doc is in her late 50's-60's, Hungarian, never been married and just has "doggies" as the nurse said.
Anyway, the doctor said I couldn't have my epidural until I was at a 4-5 so I was having to wait and at this point the contractions were getting to the place where you've been having them for so long and they're starting to really hurt that you almost want to cry but not quite yet. They gave me some other pain med in my IV that made things a little bit better but totally loopy and sleepy, so I ended up taking a little nap for a while. So 3:10p rolls around and I'm only at a 3 so the Doc comes in and breaks my water. Paul was actually out getting lunch at this point, I wasn't able to eat anything all day and had been chewing on ice chips. He thought this was pretty funny because he's had surgery 3 times since we've been married and I've always been eating while he had to starve.
After she broke my water I progressed really quickly and was at a 4 pretty fast, so my nurse called in the anesthesiologist and by the time he got there the contractions were really bad and I was dilating fast. Right before this, she told  us that the baby looked like she was stressing during the contractions and may have the cord wrapped around her. So the doctor gets the epidural going, they check me and I'm at like a 9 and still feeling the contractions. So at this point I'm getting really really nervous that I'm going to be able to feel the whole thing. The nurse said I was lucky to even be able to get the meds. So the doctor comes in and wants me to start pushing and I'm kinda freaking out in my head that I can still feel the contraction pains and have to push but I start in on it. I only had to push for about 15 minutes and Addison comes about half way out, isn't crying and the Dr. looks worried, says she had the cord wrapped around her. Paul is next to me with a horrified look on his face saying "Breathe! Breathe!" I look up and him and he changes his totally scared face to this huge smile so I wont be worried. The Dr. is saying "DONT PUSH DONT PUSH" She pretty quickly gets the cord cut and off her and she started crying and was totally fine. I little scary for a couple seconds though. She was 8lbs. 13oz. and 20 inches. Which is 2 oz more than Cohen was but 1 in shorter.

Then is the amazing part where you finally get to meet and hold this little person that has been nudging and kicking you for months and you could not wait to finally see. She surprisingly had dark hair.
When she was all cleaned up and we got to look at her, I just thought that she didn't look like Cohen but cant really tell which one of us she resembles yet.
She is absolutely gorgeous and a really great eater. She loves to sleep and likes it best to have someone laying with her and snuggling. I love my snugly babies!!
We finally decided on a name after seeing her...Addison Seoul Brown. Her middle name is like the capitol of Korea since that is where Paul served his mission and told me when we first were married that he'd like his daughter to have that middle name. I thought that was really sweet. We love little Addie and Cohen does too. He's really good about being soft with her and will point out her "eyes, ears, mouth and hair" He pretty much doesn't notice her a whole lot unless she squeaks or I'm holding her and he runs over and says "Addie" or "baby"
We couldn't be happier with our amazing little family. We have HUGE changes coming in our lives. Packing and moving while having a baby was a bit of a struggle. As I type, Paul is driving into Provo, UT for us to spend at least he next 4 months of our lives. Hopefully he will get into the MBA program there but it is an open road ahead and we don't quite know where we'll be in the year ahead. I'm so excited to start this adventure with my amazing husband and so blessed to have 2 healthy, happy kids!