Long Lost Cousins/New Friends/First Trip to Church

We have had a pretty busy weekend, filled with lots of firsts for our family.

Friday afternoon, Joe David, Stefany and Jed arrived in East Texas, on Jed's first roadtrip. Joe David had his 10 year class reunion this weekend, too, so it was a good time for them to come up for a visit. We fixed fajitas and enjoyed visiting and playing with Jed and Sydni. We had a cousin photoshoot. Unfortunately, Dane missed the photo opportunity. He and Granna were galavanting around Longview before they made it back to the house. I think that Jed was very impressed with his cousins, though. We like to joke that Jed is a very serious and judgmental little boy, and I think that Dane and Sydni passed his High Quality Cousin test with flying colors. I just hope that Mary Nan, Laura and J.J. were as lucky on their first visit with him on Saturday! I guess we'll have to check Robyn's blog for an update on their first visit with Jed. We had a great visit, though, and we hated that it had to end so soon.

Sydni & Jed

Saturday, Uncle Shayne, Aunt Billie, Aunt Kathy, and cousins Tyler and Caleb came to meet Sydni for the first time. One of my best friends, Joanna, along with her two boys, Nathan and Daniel, and her mom, Donna, came by for a visit, too. We all had a good hamburger lunch and enjoyed catching up and visiting.

Sydni & Uncle Shayne

Sydni & Aunt Kathy

Sydni & Joanna

Sydni & Donna

Dane & his new friends, Daniel & Nathan

Then, this morning, since Sydni and I have both been feeling well, we decided to go ahead and make today her first trip to church. I had bought a special dress just for today, but unfortunately, she is not as big as I had anticipated, so that dress will have to wait a while longer before she gets to wear it. Thankfully, Robyn had let me borrow a few special dresses that were her girls', and one of them is so pretty and is just Sydni's size right now. She and Dane were both so good in church today. Sydni paid attention and stayed wide awake and ate all through Bible class. She learned about the twelve apostles, and I'm sure she remembers everything she learned today. Then, she slept all through the worship service. Dane was so good in church. I am so proud of how he is doing. I was looking down at Sydni during church, and I remembered how I was brought to tears two Sundays ago, when I realized that it was the last time that it would be just Lane, Dane and me as our little 3-person family in church. Well, this morning, once again, I was brought to tears, as I realized how wonderful it felt to have my entire little 4-person family together in worship. I was holding Sydni with my left arm, as she slept, Dane was snuggled up on my right side, and my husband was sitting on my left side. This side of Heaven, I think those moments are some of the best one can experience here on Earth.

Our attempt at a family picture after church

On the flip side, as I close out this post, Lane and I just heard a breaking sound coming from Dane's room. Unfortunately, Dane threw a baseball at his window blinds, and yep, you guessed it, the window is broken! It's just a little portion of the bottom pane, so I think that Lane can tape it (yuck!) until we can replace it. On that note, I think I'll end this post!

Relaxin' with Pa/Baking with Granna/First Bath at Home/Just a Swingin'

We're staying really busy around here and having a whole lot of fun! My mom went home tonight after supper, but before she left, she and Dane were so kind and made us some banana nut bread. We found out this week that Dane absolutely loves banana nut bread, and if left alone with it, could probably finish off an entire loaf on his own. So, this was really fun for him to get to learn how to make one of his favorite foods with his Granna.

Measuring and Mixing

Napping with Pa on the couch

Tonight, we decided we would give Sydni her first bath at home. Of course, until her umbilical cord falls off, it's just a sponge bath, but we still decided to make it a grand event. Dane was extremely helpful, and loved getting to be involved. As soon as we started, Sydni started sucking her thumb. It was so cute.

All weekend, we had been really disappointed because we didn't think that Sydni was quite ready for her swing yet. Then, I remembered tonight that there is a reclining setting on the seat, so that her little head won't fall forward. So, as we speak, she is resting peacefully in her swing. Over the past month since we got the swing, Dane has become very familiar with it and all of its settings, so we got him to pose behind the swing. Every so often, he goes up to the swing and shows Sydni some of its great features.





I think that we're all going to try to get in bed early tonight, since this is our first night alone. We've got doctor appointments Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, so I know that we will stay pretty busy. Hope you are all well.

Sydni's Hospital Website Picture

Sydni's official hospital picture was posted on the hospital website today. She looked really cute and made a great face for the camera, but I was a little upset that they didn't let us know when they were planning on taking her picture, so that she could have worn a cuter outfit. Oh, well, I guess they saw how wonderful she was and decided to use her as advertisement for their hospital! I don't blame them! Just kidding.

If you want to view her on the website, her picture will be online for the next 90 days. Here's the link:

http://www.gsmc.org/baby_detail.asp?NID=1510&birth_date=&first_name=&Archive=

You guessed it...More pictures!

This is Mary again, reporting back as primary blogger in the Brown family. This past week has been so wonderful, and we are so thankful to God for blessing us with our little ones, Dane and Sydni. We are especially grateful for all of the love, thoughts and prayers that have been lifted up on our behalf.

We were able to come home from the hospital Saturday after lunch, much to our relief. Everyone was so wonderful at the hospital, but there's nothing like being in your own home. Sydni has done great. She only lost 4.5 oz by the time we came home. She is eating well, and sleeping even better. I absolutely love that she is sleeping well - the only down side is that we don't get to see her pretty blue eyes very often. It's very exciting and precious when they do open, though.

I have to admit that I have probably gone a little overboard. So far, each day, I think that we have 4 to 5 wardrobe and accessory changes. I think that, maybe twice, the clothing change was absolutely necessary, all of the other times, all for fun! Lane's mom commented that I now have my own real-life dress up doll! I really hadn't realized how much fun that part of having a girl could be. I know that Dane will probably hate this story in a few years, but he has been so sweet during all of this week's events. Thursday, as we were passing the time waiting to get to go to the hospital, my mom and I decided to go ahead and make a bunch of little bitty hair bows, so that Sydni could have a bigger variety of hair accessories to choose from. Dane came over and grabbed the baby blue ribbon and said, "I'm going to make Baby Sydni a blue hair bow." It was so sweet.

Dane is going to be the best big brother, I think. I was really surprised at how loving and affectionate he was when he got to hold her. As a general rule, I usually have to wrestle him down to get him to hug me, but the second I put Sydni in his arms, he just started kissing her over and over again. This afternoon, while Sydni was napping in her bed, we had set up the video monitor to display on the TV, and Dane said that he was going back to check on her. We immediately emphasized that he needed to not talk when he went in there. So, over the monitor, we heard him walk in and say, "Hey, Baby Sydni." Then, he came back to report to us what happened and immediately turned around to go and check on her again. On this next visit with Sydni, we heard, "Hey, Baby Sydni, what's going on?" Then, we hear Sydni start to fuss a little, and Dane said, "Don't cry, Baby Sydni, it's OK. Don't cry". It was the sweetest thing. One more sweet Dane comment and I'll move on. As we were leaving the hospital and were about to get into the car, I had turned to the nurse and thanked her for everything everybody had done. Well, I then turned around to put Sydni into her car seat, and Dane was standing by my mom with the nurse, and said to her, "Thank you for taking care of my mom." Just one of those moments a mother will always cherish.

Anyway, we're all doing really well. I'm feeling pretty good and am able to get around and do most things that I need to do. I'm in some pain, but nothing that isn't easily managed with the pain medication, so that's nice.

These are just a few of my favorite pictures from the last few days. Hope you enjoy them!

Dane, in his BIG brother t-shirt, ready to head to the hospital.

Her first passy picture - I love how it takes up most of her face!

Love those legs and long, long toes!

The weird father...

But what a GREAT father!

Our first complete family picture! I love it!

All dressed up and ready to go home!

Back home in her bed with her new friend, Miss Monkey, who was a gift from Dane!

Dane and Sydni

More Pictures of Sydni's Big Day!!!

Baby Sydni Is Here

I just wanted to let everyone know (this is Lane, by the way, first time blogger on behalf of Mary) that Sydni Lee Brown came into the world at 4:29 PM today. She weighed in at 6 lbs 9.1 oz, and 19 inches long.

She and Mary seem really healthy and happy, well Sydni might not be as happy being poked around by the doctors and nurses, but healthy all-in-all.

Big Brother Dane is very excited to see her out of mommy's belly!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Lane, Mary, Dane, and Sydni.

Fun at Granna & Pa's/East Texas Hot Air Balloons/One More Day!

Playing in the sprinkler at Granna and Pa's house

Putting on an amazing puppet show!

Dane and J.J. with their Woodys, a must-have toy for any 2 year old boy!

Last week, while Lane was gone on Trek, Dane and I spent most of the week at my parents' house. Needless to say, Dane was showered with lots of extra attention, and I was given lots of extra time for rest! The first part of the week, my mom had to work most of, but my dad was off Sunday and Monday, so we got to spend a lot of time with Pa, riding in his new truck and playing around the house. Wednesday through Friday, my mom was off, and Robyn and her kids came over to have some good cousin time together. Mainly, we spent most of the time in the pool. Dane and J.J. are avid cannon ballers, and it was so funny to watch them splash constantly. It was even a little funny how aggrevated Mary Nan and Laura would get at their constant splashing. There was a clear difference to be seen in how little girls and little boys like to enjoy their swim time! To their credit, the boys way did look like a lot more fun to me!

Three swim times in one day makes for a very fun day!

Lane returned home safely on Friday afternoon, and we basically lazed around for the remainder of that day, catching up on each other's weeks. Then, Saturday night, right at dusk, we headed over to the Gregg County Airport, to see a hot air balloon glow show. Mark Scirto, my trusty weatherman on KLTV 7, told us all about it, and since the airport is only about five miles from our house, we thought it would be fun to take Dane to go and see. During the day, they had an actual race with the hot air balloons, so this was the grand finale, I guess. Lane was a little disappointed that the balloons didn't actually fly around at the glow show, they just aired them up and lit them all at the same time. Considering Dane's 2 year old short attention span, it was probably best that they didn't fly around because he was ready to go after about 20 minutes anyway. The balloons were really pretty, though.

It looks like Dane is getting ready to pick a fight with someone in this picture.

Watching the hot air balloons!

Well, this will be my last blog before Sydni is born tomorrow afternoon. I can hardly believe that the time is finally here. Joe David and I discussed the other day how nine months is such an incredibly long time to have to wait for a baby. He said that he thought there should be a doctor out there that specializes in getting fully developed, big babies to be born in just six months.


We have a pretty big day planned before we have to be at the hospital. I get to eat a big breakfast tomorrow, as long as I have it eaten by 8:30, then nothing to eat or drink for the rest of the day. After breakfast, Lane will ceremonially shave his beard to reveal his amazing #1 Dad mustache. We will also have a ceremony to pin his "#1 Dad" pin on his shirt. It will be a very emotional time, I'm sure! For those of you who don't get what I'm talking about, I'll fill you in. When Lane and I attended childbirth classes when we were expecting Dane, we didn't learn much, but we did learn 2 very important things. They showed us several birth videos, which were all clearly made in the 80's. Well, two very important things stood out to both of us, and we made sure that we remembered them...#1 - All good new fathers have amazing mustaches, and...#2 - All good new fathers wear buttons on their shirts that say #1 Dad. Sure, you might say that the dads in those videos only had mustaches because they were from the 1980's, but we tend to believe that there was more significance to it than that. I mean, my dad didn't have a mustache in the 80's (granted, he couldn't grow one), but still, we don't think it was just a coincidence. So, we will make sure that Lane is completely prepared to welcome his new child into the world properly.


Lane and I have to report to the hospital at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, so that I can get all of my lab work done. The c-section is scheduled for 5:00 p.m., so hopefully we'll have a sweet girl to hold shortly after that. We'll post lots of pictures tomorrow night, I'm sure! Please pray that everything will go well, and that Sydni will be healthy.