The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

The big day!

October 18th – what a day!  I had been to the doctor on Tuesday 10/16 and he really didn’t think anything would happen until early this week…and I agreed.  He also said that just because my water broke with Maxwell, that didn’t make it any more likely that my water would break with #2.  Well, looks like he was wrong on both counts (don’t worry Dr. Stone – we still love you!)  :).  I did stick Maxwell in the stroller on Wednesday afternoon and go for a nice long walk so maybe that’s what prompted Spencer to get things moving later that night.  Who knows?!

I woke up around 2:30am on Wednesday night/Thursday morning thanks to some massive thunder outside.  Robert and I then remembered that we had left the top off of Maxwell’s sand table and all of his sand and trucks were getting soaked.  Honestly, this woke up me up completely and I was about to try and go outside to cover it up when I realized my water had broken.  I wasn’t 100% sure so laid back down but then started having contractions every 7 minutes so I knew it was for real.  I woke Robert up about 3:30am and we started getting ready to go!  Calls were made to Robert’s parents who were vacationing in Highlands, NC, to my parents in FL, to Dr. Stone and then to Susan.  As always, a GIGANTIC thank you to Susan for all that she does.  I called her at 4:20 and she was at our house by 5am ready to take care of Maxwell for the day.

We got to the hospital around 5am and got checked into our awesome and huge room.  It was about double the size of the room I had with Maxwell and had a whole wall of windows – really nice.  My nurse, Amber, was great and she had a nursing student, Lee, assisting her who was really sweet too.  They started the pitocin around 6:00, I got the epidural around 9:00 and I was ready to go by 11:00!  Dr. Stone was running a bit behind though so I was told not to push or even laugh at one point!!  ha!  Spencer Patterson Brown made his entrance at 11:38.  He really didn’t cry at first, I think because he had so much fluid in his lungs.  Because I didn’t push for very long at all, he didn’t get squeezed quite as much as he needed to to clear all of that out.  He was also REALLY blue when I first saw him.  Blue and no crying = nervous mommma!  But, he pinked up right away and then let out a few good cries.  Best sound ever.

Robert’s parents had gotten there around 11:00 and my parents arrived that afternoon around 4:30.  Susan brought Maxwell up to meet his baby brother that afternoon as well.  It was a fantastic day that could not have gone better.  I feel so lucky to have had such an easy experience again.  Almost makes me want to do it all one more time!  🙂

Below are some pictures that Robert took throughout the morning and afternoon with the big camera.  I never even picked up my big camera in the hospital (but had my iphone glued to my hands!) so thank you Robert for taking some awesome photos!

A Very Special Birthday!

Today is Maxwell’s great-grandmother Susu’s birthday!  It’s not just any birthday though, it’s her 90th!  Fantastic!  What a milestone!

Susu – we wish we could be with you in person today to give you a big hug, but know that we are thinking about you and sending you lots of love and wishes for a great day!  We’ll give you that big hug at Thanksgiving!

To make up for not being able to see you in person, here are some pictures taken especially for you!

Maxwell wanted to include the “pump-choos” in your birthday pictures…

and he worked hard to get them positioned juuuuust right….

He finally got them right where he wanted them…

But those pumpkins are heavy and it kind of wore him out!

and he just didn’t have much energy left for smiling…

But, don’t worry, he’ll be full of smiles for you when he sees you at Thanksgiving!

We love you, Susu!!  Happy Birthday!

 

Birthday!!!!

Maxwell, can you read what that sign says?

Let’s see…there’s a P and B and D and…

Momma, the library hasn’t yet taught me what the letters actual mean when they’re together. Help me.

Alright Maxwell, it says “Happy Birthday DaDa!” because TODAY is Dad’s birthday!!

It is?  Oh boy!  I’m going to hold this sign up all day until he gets home so it’s the first thing he sees when he walks in the door!

Yep, I’m just going to hold it up like this all day.

Momma, what time does Dad get home?  My arms are getting tired.

It’s ok bud, you can put the sign down.  We’ll be sure to show him these pictures so he can see it.  We could sing Happy Birthday to him…Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…

Oh Momma, let’s not do that.  You might be a better singer than Dad but…well, that makes me want to plug my ears.

No problem buddy.  What else could we do for Dad that he might like to see on his birthday?

Oh, I know!  Ready?

Roooolllll….

Tide!!

Great idea, Maxwell!  I know Dad will love that!

Happy Birthday Robert!  We love you SO much and can’t wait to celebrate with you tonight (cake!).  Thank you for ALL that you already do around here – and all the more you’re about to do when #2 arrives!

I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend my days and years with.  Thank you for your patience, your attention to detail on so many important things, your level-headedness and, most importantly, for being my best friend and making us the happiest little family in all the land!

Here’s to a GREAT 36th year!!!

A birthday post!

Does everyone know what today is?  Oh yes, it’s GJ’s BIRTHDAY!!!!  Happy Birthday GJ (or DD as Maxwell has been calling her lately)!  No Aspen this year, but with all the traveling from FL to AL to AR you’ve been doing, something tells me you’re happy to just be at home today!

You’ve been carrying the weight of the world (well, at least the weight of most of our family!) on your shoulders and we want you to know how much we appreciate all that you do (really, really appreciate it!) and how much we LOVE you!  I simply don’t know what we would do without you.

As a little reminder of your birthday wishes in the past, check out 2010 and 2011.  For this year, Maxwell once again wanted to send you some happy birthday wishes…

 Hmmm, I can’t wait to give GJ a big hug for her birthday!

Unfortunately you don’t get to see her in person today, buddy.

Whaaaat?  That’s not a nice thing to say Momma.

I know buddy.  I wish we could see her too.  But, we’ll see her in just about 5 weeks when your baby brother is born.  Until then, let’s show her the great birthday sign.

Fine.  Here you go.

Oh, come on bud.  Let’s show GJ how much we love her and how excited we are that it’s her birthday!

Alright, Momma.  You’re right…how’s this?

Much better!  Now, how about a big smile?

You got it!  Cheese!

Oh boy, GJ’s gonna love that!  Can you give me an even bigger smile?

Anything for GJ!  Cheeeeeeeeeese!

Now that’s a big smile!  Ok, how about a cheer for her birthday?

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Hooray for GJ indeed!!  Happy Birthday, GJ!  Hope it’s a GREAT day!

We love you!

Roll Tide in the Big D!

What a FUN long weekend we had!  Robert and I took one last pre-baby adventure and hopped on a plane to spend about 12 hours in Dallas and see the Tide roll all over Michigan!  A BIG, HUGE thanks to GJ and Daddo for not only giving us the trip and tickets for our birthdays, but for also coming and watching Maxwell while we were gone.  We really, really appreciate it and had the BEST time!

Game day and we were all ready, including Maxwell!

Robert and I ended up taking a charter flight to Dallas.  It was great because we got off the plane in Dallas and immediately got onto buses right on the tarmac that took us to Cowboy Stadium.  After the game, we all made our way back to the buses and hopped on the plane to come home.  Granted, we didn’t get back home until 3:30 am and were exhausted but it was worth it!  Our plane left from Birmingham at 2:00 in the afternoon and, luckily we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare because I went to check-in only to learn that my driver’s license had expired 2 days before on August 29th!!!  What?!  I had NO idea that it was expired.  Luckily (very luckily) we live close to the airport and my  mom was able to get my passport up to me within 15 minutes.  Phew!  Poor Maxwell though, it was his nap time and by the time she got to the airport he was doing this in the backseat…

Robert was about to kill me during the process but, we made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare and I WILL be heading to the DMV this week!  🙂

I took a little series of self-portraits with my iphone throughout the day.  Much easier than asking someone else to take your picture!

At the airport (passport in hand!) and ready to go!

On the buses headed to Cowboy Stadium…

Outside of Jerry World!

In our great seats before kick-off…

During the game…

After the game, tired but happy, back on the buses…

On the plane at about 2am really ready to be home!

I also took lots of pictures with my big camera.  If you’re every going to Cowboy Stadium, note that you can’t take in a lens longer than 3 inches.  I didn’t think they would really enforce that, but I took a smaller lens just in case and I’m so glad I did!  The security guy definitely measured it and I’m so glad I had my cheapy, shorter lens instead of my good long one!  That thing would have been left in Dallas!

A little shot of BBB#2 at his first AL game!

Please note my OFF bug spray fan clipped onto my bag.  I wasn’t going to get West Nile!  I have to say, being so pregnant, I was kind of the novelty of our flight.  Everyone kept asking when I was due, how much longer I had, how they couldn’t believe I came on the trip, how I was such a trooper, etc.  I knew I’d be fine though and I was.  No problems at all – despite the 90+ degree heat and VERY bad air conditioning on the plane and bus!

Our seats really were good and right in the middle of all AL fans.  We bought them off of stubhub and didn’t know which side most AL fans would be sitting on.  We almost bought seats on the other side of the stadium and I’m so glad we didn’t because we would have been smack dab in the middle of a bunch of Michigan fans!  This was our view from our seats…

Not bad at all!  We were on the end of the row which was nice.  Right on the other side of that railing was the club level.  Those people paid a lot more for their seats and, other than having more padding on their chair, I don’t think they got much more than we did!

The jumbo-tron was awesome and jumbo. It was hard not to just watch the game up there the whole time!  They were doing crowd shots throughout the game which were pretty funny a lot of the time.

A game shot for Robert…

Maxwell will be glad to know that Big Al was there!

I didn’t worry once about Maxwell the entire game because I knew he was having a ball at home with GJ and Daddo.  My mom sent me this picture as proof!

Two peas in a pod!

While not a close game (Go Bama!) it was a fun game to watch and we got to see this up on the screen a lot!

Touchdown AL!  This was also an interesting fact of the night…

Let me tell ya, there were a LOT of people there!

And, of course, we were VERY pleased with the final score!!

After the game, we made our way back to the buses and, after a slight delay waiting for Ricky Phillips to show up (the only person out of 100 that couldn’t get back to the buses in time!) we headed back to DFW and flew back into Birmingham.  A quick trip but worth every second!  Again, thank you to GJ and Daddo for the flight, the tickets and the babysitting.  It was definitely a birthday trip to remember!

Roll Tide!