MIA!!!

Sorry it's been so long!!! We have been busy little bees.  But I am not officially on Maternity Leave so I thought I'd update before our entire world changes with a newborn and I REALLY won't have the time to update very often......

So since our last update we have since found out that we are having a handsome little fella.....but I'm sure most of you know this already.  We flew home and had a gender reveal party with family and friends and it was so amazing to find out with everyone we love and care for.  :) Then I headed home again in January for my amazing baby shower.  I am so so so blessed to have the beautiful (inside and out) women I have in my life.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect shower, right down to the very last detail.

Fast forward and I am 38 wks along.  The finish line is VERY near!  Everything during our pregnancy has been pretty blissful (knock on wood!!).  I am still walking at least 5-6 days a wk, but am definitely ready for a faster pace of life......aka running.  But in due time.  I am still feeling very good and want baby Mason to bake as long as he needs.  We have family & friends starting to fly in at the end of this week to await his arrival.   We couldn't be more excited!!! Although I am feeling a little sad knowing he won't be inside me anymore.  I have really really enjoyed pregnancy and LOVE LOVE LOVE the feeling of him, knowing he is safe and sound in there.  But I also know it will be much sweeter to have him in my arms and watch him grow.

Now that I am on maternity leave and have to admit, BORED!!! So I am occupying my time by baking and cooking and freezing lots of dinners in preparation for when Bruce and I become walking zombies and don't have the energy to cook or bake for ourselves.  Masons all set and ready to go, so that's a good feeling.  Now we browns....WAIT!!! Wish us luck and keeps us in your prayers for a fast and healthy birth!!!! Will try and update as soon as we can!

Love,
Nichole, Bruce, baby Mason, and Pudge

The beautiful gender reveal cake

After seeing the BLUE inside :) 

Beautiful shower cake 

adorable table set up.  The loofahs said "from Nichole's shower to yours. Thank you"

Best Friends 

Grams Me and Mom :) 

Adorable blue punch! 

diaper cake and a few diaper table centerpieces 

The BEAUTIFUL and very thoughtful gift Bruce sent to 

Lindsey to give to me at our shower. Love him!

A few of our fav Maternity photos :) 

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!!! I say holidays versus Thanksgiving because I know myself and I know I probably won't be back on to check in until the new year......

We are all healthy and happy!! We had a fantastic Thanksgiving that included taking a shower and getting right back into my jammies and eating eating and eating with absolutely no shame!! It was fantastic! We usually are with family or friends or have people over, BUT this year we decided to just stay in with our little family and relax.  And relax we did. It was fabulous.

We had our anatomy scan Wednesday.  I was so unbelievably nervous...I was so anxious to make sure beautiful baby B was healthy and growing.  It was so wonderful to see our baby again. He or She is very healthy and growing on track.  We had the tech put the sex of the baby on a piece of paper and in an envelope that we immediately sent out to the baker of our gender cake so we wouldn't know.  The tech was so nice and asked us to turn our heads every time she got near the sex so the secret remained just that.  We will find out at our gender reveal party next Saturday with family and friends, SO EXCITED!

We need some extra prayers and good thoughts please........Bruce has an interview with the state of MI on Dec. 18th!!! YAY!!! We are so excited and hopeful.  This may be our chance to move back to our home state to be closer to family and friends.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.....this move would be very bittersweet for us.  We LOVE Colorado and all of the amazing friends and family we have here, but with the baby coming we would love to be closer to grandparents and have Baby B closer to all of our family and friends.  So fingers crossed that this opportunity turns up for us!

We hope all is well in your neck of the woods and hope to see as many of you as we can during our short visit!! Happy Holidays!!!
Love,
Nichole, Bruce, Baby B, and Pudge xoxo

Hi :)

Well hello there.......

We are all healthy and happy here in the Brown household.  We had our 16 wk checkup a couple of days ago.....baby brown and I both are healthy and happy.  Baby is growing right on track and had a heart beat of 154.  We go at the end of the month for our 20 wk ultra sound.  We've decided to put the gender in an envelope and seal it so it stays a secret for a little while longer.  We are planning to go home to MI the 5th of December to visit our family and have a gender reveal get together.  We would like to take our envelope to a bakery and have a cake made.  Then we will cut into the cake with close family and friends and it will either be pink or blue inside.  We are just waiting for his time off to be approved.  Fingers crossed.

We took a trip into the mountains for a small hike to see how my body reacts to the higher elevations.  It was a little harder to breath but I felt pretty good.  We love to snowshoe and would really like to do some snowshoeing this winter, my doctor said to just take it a little slower than usual.  So we are excited for some good snow to get up there!

Well we hope all is well.  We miss & love you all!

Love,
Bruce, Nic, & Pudge xoxo

This was taken a few weeks ago.  We are trying to record a 

weekly picture to put into the cute belly book we got as a gift. 

Family picture last week :) 

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

It has been a very busy few months for the Brown family! We found out we were expecting!!!! (which was the BEST news ever!) went on a vacation to the Soo, we finally got Pudge back, and are adjusting to a slower pace of life.

I am one of the lucky ones (knock on wood!!!) and have been very healthy during my first trimester.  I had a bit of exhaustion, but that's about it! I did have to get use to taking a nap though.  I have never been one to nap, but during the first 10 weeks I could NOT go an entire day without taking a siesta! Luckily at 10 weeks it starting to die down and I am now able to make it through the days without a nap.  Although I am still in bed and sleeping by 9:30! :) Bruce is amazing.  He is so thoughtful and attentive.....but come on, did we expect anything less from him?! He's such an amazing man and continues to prove this every single day.

Our other baby is home!!! Fur baby that is......Having Pudge back is amazing! I definitely think he knows something is up because as he has always been an attached dog, he is GLUED to my side more than usual.  He still adores Bruce, but before it was pretty evenly split up or with whomever happen to be around.  Now he is pissed if he doesn't leave with me or is not with me.  And when we are together, we are TO-GE-THER, where I go he goes, and I have no choice in the matter.....even in the bathroom.  He is also my work out partner.  I've decided to stop running during the pregnancy, even though the doctor approved it, I just feel like I don't want to take ANY unnecessary risk.  I love to run, so going from running to walking was quite boring for me.  Before getting Pudge back I didn't look forward to it.  But now I have a little buddy to go with and he makes it faster paced and more fun! Plus on the days I really don't feel like going I have no choice because he needs his walks.

Our trip back to the Soo was so much fun!! We got to see all of our amazing family and friends and tell the secret to a few people, as we wanted to tell them in person.  When we went home we were only 8 and a half weeks along, so it was a little scary to share but we are glad we got to do it in person.  For my mom, mother-in-law, and father-in-law we got them each a cute baby book that fit their life and attached a note that said "Dear Grandma (pa) please keep this at your house to read to me. Can't wait to meet you in April of 2014."  And for my Dad we had a onesie made that said "Don't worry Grandpa I'm going to be a Wings fan" and we did this because Bruce and my dad love the Red Wings and I love the Avalanche, who are rivals and they always gang up on me! Needless to say they all loved it and are very very excited!

So we have had two ultrasounds and Baby Brown and I are safely into our second trimester! I never thought I'd be such a worry wart, but I was sooooo nervous for the 12 wk appointment.  All I wanted was to hear and see that beautiful baby.  And sure enough he/she was bouncing all around and had a beautiful strong heart beat! It was like the world had been lifted from our shoulders.  Our due date is 4-14-14......we loved it! I know it's rare they actually come on their due dates, but it is such a neat date that we hope he/she does!

Well I will leave you with a few pictures and hopes to be better at updating our blog......We hope all is well!

Love,
Nic, Bruce, and Pudge

Baby Brown at 8 and a half weeks

Our announcement :) 

Naomi's 30th!!! 

SO FUN!! 

At Kims engagement! such a beautiful moment to witness! 

Tigers game! :) 

Broncos game a couple weeks ago! SO FUN!! LOVE my Broncos! 

Manitou Incline

........AKA Stair Master on CRACK!!! ;)

The Brown family is all happy and healthy!!! We are taking advantage of the cooler weather lately, and by cooler I mean 84 degree average.  It's so weird to us that we think 84 is cool now.  It's been warm in the mornings and afternoons and would get cloudy and rainy in the evenings.  It's been a WONDERFUL break.  Next week it's back to the triple digits.

So since the weather has been ideal to do activities outside lately, we decided to try our luck at the Manitou Incline.  Let me tell you.....it was the most difficult activity we have done since moving out here.  Manitou Incline is located in Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs.  It use to be an old railroad.  It is 4 miles total, there and back.  But the first mile feels like 10.  The way up is only a mile long but inclines by TWO THOUSAND feet.  There were times I was basically crawling because the incline was so steep.  But when you turned around and saw the site, it was well worth the hardy work out.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon in Manitou Springs being tourist.  We went antique shopping, one of my favs!!! And we even got ice cream! haha :) All in all it was such a wonderful day.

We are going camping and hiking next week near Breckenridge.  It is my 29th (OMG!!!! I'm getting soooo old!!) birthday next week and that's what we decided to do.  We can't wait to escape and spend some awesome quality time together.

Well we hope all is well with you all!! We miss and love u tons!

Love,
Nic & Bruce xo

The beginning....

Taking a break to admire the view

B lovin' it

View from the bottom. Yes, we climbed alllll the way to the top

Beautiful! 

Yup. Extreme

                                                  

WE DID IT!!! 

Kinda rough some times....

SO BEAUTIFUL! 

Waiting to go back down. 

Sweet Summer Time

Hello everyone!

So I know I have been terrible at updating.....BUT in my defense IT'S SUMMMMMMER TIME!!! I just have a very hard time staying indoors when it's so beautiful outside.  But I am taking a little break from the 98 degree weather and pool right now for a quick update.

We are all healthy and happy.  We are also currently counting down the days until we are in Michigan for a visit......a little less then two months! YAY! :)  We spend most of our time off by our beautiful pool lounging and soaking up the sun.  When we aren't pool side we are in the mountains, exploring!

Lindsey was here for a visit a few weeks ago, and it was so nice to have her! We sat by the pool daily, shopped, ate, shopped, and ate some more! We also went to a ball game and did the Color Run 5k.  It was soooo fun! I recommend that everyone do a color run if possible.  Everyone was so upbeat and full of energy, all 10,000 people that ran it in Denver.  Bruce and I will be doing another in August and we can't wait!!

We hope you all are enjoying your summer as much as us!!!
Love,
Bruce and Nic xoxo

HandyMan :)

Hi Everyone!

Quick update to show some love to my handyman and Pinterest!

So ever the bargain shopper I am, I found some really cute knobs for dirt cheap at Michaels Craft Store about two or so months ago.  I didn't exactly know what I was going to do with them, but had to buy them anyways, figuring that I would eventually find something.  I mean that is what Pinterest is for right?! Well low and behold I stumbled upon a pin that was exactly what I was looking for!

So I showed my handyman hubby and he of course said he could do it for me.  Well I came home last week to the beautiful finished products and I absolutely LOVE them and had to share!

Scarf (or jewelry/purse) Rack! 

He was able to make me two beautiful racks.  We put one up for my scarves and I am saving the second to put up in our first home.  I plan to put the second in our bedroom for a jewelry/purse rack.  Bruce said it was relatively easy.  And it was definitely inexpensive.  I fell in love with them mostly because it's homemade and something that is unique and made from love.  Instead of buying the regular old racks from department stores, these have character and add a "homie" feel.  

Here is the original link to the pin.....  DIY RACK  

What we used:

• Wood. We bought a piece of scrap wood from Home Depot and it was only $0.52!!
• Sand Paper 
• Paint & Brush
• We used wood fillers (I'm not really sure what they are officially called but they are the cute blocks that the knobs are on) to add space in case your knobs are long. Also at HD for only $1
• And of course cute knobs! (I paid under a $1 for each of mine!)
• Tools (drill and a saw if you have to cute your board)

Well we hope you are all well!! We miss and love you tons!

Love,

Nic and Bruce xoxo