Grandma & Grandpa Brownell

While my parents were here, we tried to fit in a couple of fun things among all the baby stuff. We went to see the lake downtown Cleveland and walked around for a while. We also stopped at the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and took a tour of Johnny Cash's tour bus. We read the sign outside that said he had spent over $550,000 it in the 80's. We were expecting to see something extremely nice, and after the tour we decided that Johnny Cash got ripped off. It was not nice inside and there was nothing special about it! Totally lame... He later sold it after his wife died for $30,000 to someone who donated it to the Hall of Fame.

Downtown Cleveland

Does it get any cuter than that? :) I'm so glad my parents were able to come and see Anderson while he is brand new. They change so fast!! I already feel like he looks different after the week that they were here!

My mom must have the special touch. Anderson loved to snug with her! He would just crash every time. It was nice to have an extra pair of hands to hold him.

We also spent some time in Kirtland, the John Johnson Farm and the Isaac Morley Farm which is the picture above. It's always nice to visit the sites again and feel the spirit in all of those special places from our church history. We found out on Sunday though that we had picked the wrong day to go to Kirtland. President Monson was there on Saturday!! We obviously weren't in tune when we picked Tuesday to go there.

Jack and I went to the park a while ago with some friends and a little boy came in a full Batman costume. Ever since then, Jack has been running around saying that he is Batman. My mom and I found this mask at JoAnn's and we had to get it! This is Jack's Batman face. I'm not sure why he does that but we think it is hilarious. This bottom picture is my Dad's Batman face... wow. :) Doesn't he look just like him?!

Justin was really sick all week long, and Jack was being a grouch all week, but besides all that we had a lot of fun. As always it goes by way too fast!!! I couldn't believe it had been a week when I dropped them off at the airport. I'm not sure when we will get to see them next since we are staying here for all of the holidays... SAD!!

Thank you so much for coming Mom and Dad and for all that you did for us!! I miss you guys already. You better come back soon!! Love you!

Little Anderson

We've made it to day 5! Anderson has been a great little baby so far and we are loving all the snuggling time. My mom and dad are here and it has been fun to have them. We have been pretty lazy, but have managed to still do a couple fun things.

This is a picture of Jack with Anderson in the hospital. He wanted to hold him but about 2 seconds after, he told Justin that he is too heavy and didn't want to anymore. Jack has been having a rough time the past few days. We had to be to the hospital early so he stayed the night at Pete and Brittany's house the night before. (Thank you guys again!!!) He has had a bad cold, a new brother, and a wacky schedule...all of which have contributed to one grouchy little boy. Hopefully as he starts to feel better, his attitude will get better along with it!

Justin did a pretty good job of telling the story, but I will add the things that I remember...

We made it to the hospital at 6am. Our first nurse was really nice, but she was in training and could not get my IV in for anything. This was one of the worst parts of the whole day. I have a nice bruise from it now. She finally got it in the other arm and start the pit really slow. We hung out until 9:30 when I got my epidural which was wonderful. I had only felt a few stronger contractions up to this point so I was thankful to get it so early. Then Dr. Reider came in and broke my water and cranked up the pit. Justin and I pretty much just watched movies all day waiting for me to dilate all the way. It was actually a pretty relaxing day, strange as it seems. Around3:00pm, Dr. Reider came in and said that I was to a 9 and that Anderson was posterior. He asked me if I wanted to just try and push to see if we could make some progress or if I wanted to try a couple things to get him to rotate a little. I decided to try and push and see what happened... 25 minutes later he was born! It was fabulous. I honestly did not even feel like I had just had a baby. I hope my next delivery goes exactly the same way this one did. Everything went so smoothly and I hardly felt any pain compared to when Jack was born. It was such a great day. We are so glad to have him here!! And I am extremely glad to not be pregnant anymore!! It is such a blessing to have him here and know that he is healthy and that everything went so well. All of that anxiety of wondering how things will go is gone, and it is a great feeling. Now I just get to enjoy my little guy!!!

INTRODUCING ANDERSON KADE HEATON

This is the morning of the appointment just before we left our house to go to the hospital. We had to be there at 6:00 AM. so we got up at 4:30.

This is Stacey waiting to get her IV. By around 6:45 they had gotten us to our room, placed her IV and had started Pitocin. They were great! Just after he was born they took him over to weigh and measure him.

6 pounds 14 oz and 20 inches long.

He is getting dressed for the first time!

They had just put that goop in his eyes. I guess it is for a good reason and at least it doesn't hurt them at all.

This is the proud mommy just after he was born! She did a great job and I am so proud of her!

The nurse is bathing him for the first time. He cried a lot and didn't seem to like it at all.

I went and got Jack once things had settled down and Stacey had got to her new room. He could have really cared less for baby brother and hardly even noticed he was there. He was way more excited about the balloons and toy car that his baby brother brought him

We are now a family of four!! I am not quite sure if it has set in yet. This is just a taste of the pictures to come. Stacey is much better at this but I thought I would at least get a few up today. All in all it was an amazing experience and turned out so much better than the first time with Jack. We had an amazing staff and are so grateful for all of them. We are especially grateful for our new baby boy and couldn't be happier to be parents again. It really is the best feeling in the world!

Here is a little update on Stacey and the baby. We got to the hospital this morning at 6:00 AM. They got us right to our room, got her IV in and started her on Pitocin. She was on that until she got her epidural at 9:30 AM. They broke her water right after she got the epidural and then they have been upping the dose of Pitocin every so often since that point. She is now dilated to a 9 however the baby is posterior (AGAIN). We may have to wait to see if he turns on his own. However, we are hoping that it is not too much longer. Stacey feels great and has hardly had an ounce of pain. This experience has been much better than her first one. We are both excited to meet our new boy and hope that pictures will be up soon! Thanks for all your support and blessings!

Akron 1/2 Marathon

Justin and a few friends from school decided to do a half marathon together. As the time came closer to the race, everyone ended up backing out except for Justin. Luckily, he recruited wonder woman Hollie to do it with him. This is them right before the race. Don't you love her pink pants!? It made it easy for me to spot her in the crowd. :) It started at 7am and it was still dark outside! We had to leave around 5am which is way too early for me! I was worried about Jack being grouchy from waking up so early but he was a trooper the whole time.

I saw this guy's shirt and thought it was super funny...I wonder how many people were having that same thought run through their mind.

Here they are after just getting started. Obviously this is a horrible picture, but Hollie is in the white and Justin is peeking up behind the girl with the head phones.

So I figured out after the whole race was over that my digital zoom was on!! It made ALL the pictures blurry and I was so sad after I finally figured out what was wrong!! Anyways, this is Justin crossing the finish line. His goal was to beat 2 hours and he came in a 1 hr and 49 minutes! Way to go!!!

After all that running and he still has a smile on his face!

Here comes Hollie at 1 hr 54 minutes, right behind Justin. She cut off around 10 minutes from her last half marathon. What a woman!!

Way to go Dad!!! (Blurry....grrr!)

The awesome runners. Way to go guys! You did GREAT!!!

Just Waiting...

So here I am, full term and waiting for this baby to arrive. So far, I am dilated to a 2 1/2 and if I haven't had him by Oct. 2nd, I will be induced that day. I have been busy trying to get stuff ready for the baby and also for family to come. I am pretty tired ALL of the time, but just try to keep moving. If I sit down for too long, I will be asleep. :) We still don't have a name for sure, but our two favorites so far are Anderson and Cade. We might just have to wait and see what he looks like because we cannot decide for anything! We are really bad with names. Maybe I will find something completely different between now and when he is born. I am getting pretty nervous for the actual delivery. I did not enjoy my experience delivering Jack, so I am crossing my fingers that this one is a little better. Anyways, the countdown is on! Hopefully my next post will have a cutie pie little boy in it!!

I love little boys

I just have to say how much I love this little boy. He is at such a fun age, despite his little naughty moments. The other night for family night, we went to go pick out our pumpkins and he insisted that he wear his frog boots, even though he was wearing shorts. He looked so cute. I just love his personality. He loves to sing songs, talk, ask the same question over and over, play with cars and airplanes, go to the park, and pretend that he is Batman. He is all boy, minus that fact that he can't stand if his hands or feet are dirty. He is always asking for a wipee. I guess that's not a bad thing though! :) He talks about wanting to teach our little brother high five and knuckles. Hopefully he will be as excited about the baby AFTER he comes! I am anxious to see how he reacts.

He had a doctor's appointment the other day and his pediatrician could not get over how well he talks. I love having little conversations with him and hearing what is going on in that little head of his. I'm not sure what I will do if my next child doesn't talk as soon as he did. I'm sure Jack will talk enough for the two of them. :)

At 27 months his stats are:

Height- 36 in.- 65%

Weight- 28 lbs. 6 oz.- 41%

Patterson is Open!

Hooray! We are so excited that Patterson Fruit Farm is open again. It is one of my favorite places to go in the fall. I love all the apples, I love the pretty drive out there, and I love that Jack has so much fun.

We are geeks... :)

Spencer, Suzy and Sydney joining in the fun! I love Sydney's face in this picture...so cute!

Love that little boy

Jack could have played on these slides for hours if we would have let him. He was loving it!

I hope the weather is nice enough to take our parents out here when they come, because I can't wait to go again! :)

Labor Day Weekend

We had an awesome Labor Day weekend that started out on Saturday at Sulfur Springs near Chagrin Falls. It is so beautiful out there! We took a picnic with friends and walked down the cold stream in our flip flops. Jack was loving it! It is definitely a place we will be going back to. I love finding new places to go explore.

We have never been there and kept saying the whle time how gorgeous it was. There is a nice picnic area and lots of trails you can walk.

Justin helping Jack down the little water fall.

After Sulfur Springs and a baptism at the church, we headed to the Indian's game. It was a perfect night! The only thing that would have made it better was if the Indian's would have won. :(

We never get sick of the baseball games. It was an early game so it was a good one to take Jack to. Complete with hotdogs, nacho's, candy and peanuts, we were in seventh heaven! :)

After the game, we went down to the water to watch the sunset. They had a live band going and a fireworks show after, which was an extra bonus because we didn't even know about it! It made for an extra fun day.

On Monday we headed back to the water front to watch the air show. The tickets were $21 a piece so we found a spot close by on the water and watched it for free which makes it even more enjoyable. We like free! :) This first airplane came screaming by us and was SO LOUD!!! Jack got really scared at first so he sat with Justin most of the time and Justin plugged his ears for him. After he got used to it, he thought it was super cool.

He went up to this random guy sitting by us and carried on a conversation about the boat that had pulled up. All while keeping his hand on the guy's shoulder. It kind of makes me nervous because Jack will seriously make friends with anyone!

Here we are enjoying the beautiful weather and waiting for the Air Force Thunderbirds to do their grand finale...

It was supposed to start any minute when it started POURING down rain!!! It seriously happened in a matter of seconds.

We weren't sure where to go or what to do at first until we noticed everyone was taking cover under a couple tents that were set up. We were the only people left on the grass getting soaked when we decided we better join the rest of them!

This is the other tent people were hiding under. It rained like this for a good twenty minutes or so while we just hung out like sardines next to a bunch of strangers. It was pretty funny. We got a good laugh but were super sad when we realized we weren't going to see the Thunderbirds, which was the whole reason we stayed so long! It was a bummer. Overall we had a fun weekend!