PC...

Highland Lady Hawks vs. Mountain View:  2-1-11 @ 5:57 p.m.

Love this girl.  And this season she is her daddy's number which makes it pretty great!

PC...

Dining room table dumpsite:  1-31-11 @ 6:03 p.m.

I remember my mom getting frustrated at any given flat surface in our kitchen
because there was always STUFF covering them.
I can SO relate!

PC...

No picture for today because honestly I forgot.

Instead, I'll leave a thought that I shared on my Ward Missionary visits today.  Yes, I'm a Ward Missionary.  I was released as the Young Women's President last May.  Goodness, that was a difficult release and should be a post in and of itself.  But on to my thought...

"Member missionary work does not require the development of strategies or gimmicks.  It does require faith - real faith and trust in the Lord.  It also requires genuine love.  The first great commandment is to 'love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind...The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself'."   ~ Elder Ballard

When I was extended the call my first thoughts were "me???  a ward missionary???"  I was sure that there were plenty of other people who were better qualified than me and if I'm being honest I often thought to myself when others were called on any given Sunday "oh man! I'm so glad that's not me!"  Yeah - awful of me, I know.  But after working through some feelings of real inadequacy I've come to settle in to my new calling and it's been wonderful to reflect on my own mission.  It was good to ask myself "why did I go?"  There were events that lead up to me making that decision but in the end it was because I did love the Lord and I did trust Him and I knew that putting my faith in Him would lead to really great stuff.  Not just out in the mission field but also upon my return.

And that's just what happened for me in Korea and what I try to express to those I visit now.  Because our Heavenly Father loves us as does our Savior Jesus Christ and they have promised us in the scriptures that they will go before us and prepare the way so we can accomplish their work. 

Let's get to work!

PC...

Juicing lemons on a lazy Saturday morning:  1-29-11 @ 10:27 a.m.

Although we don't have a lemon tree ourselves we live among generous neighbors who do have these orbs of sunshine growing in their backyards.  They are always so good to share.
Lucky us...a counter overflowing with lemons AND fabulous neighbors!

PC...

Unwinding on Friday night after a long week: 1-28-11 @ 7:53 p.m.

These two are quite a pair. Totally in love with each other. It's a brother/sister relationship at its best. Maddie was eight when Coop was born and she truly was his second mom. Still is. And it never surprises me when he chooses her over me because he often does. It makes me happy.

PC...

Homework:  1-27-11 @ 3:12 p.m.

I'm calling this my Personal Challenge (PC)...

Beginning today and ending in one month I would like to take one picture a day and post it to my blog.
I want it to represent our family now and what we do to fill our days.
The big stuff, the little, and all the in between stuff.
Right here at the beginning of 2011.
Or pretty close to the beginning anyway.
It might be uneventful to others but I hope it will be fun for our kids (and us) to look back and remember us
as we are!

Court of Honor:  1-26-11 @ 7:24 p.m.

Davis earns his First Class and Second Class rank advancements.  He also receives 5 more merit badges plus his Totin' Chip.  Davis always gives his mom a big warm hug after he pins on her pins.  It's really not fair that his Dad doesn't get the pins and/or the hugs.  After all, it is his Dad that walks beside him through this whole scout stuff.
Mom just stands to the side and cheers them on.

If this PC goes well I just might think about keeping it going but I don't want to set myself up for failure.
30 days is going to test me as it is.

Light...

Have you been looking out your window lately??
It's truly beautiful.
The sunsets have been spectacular this winter!

One night during Christmas break we took an evening drive to the temple.  As we drove the freeway I couldn't help but wonder at the sky.  The sunset was so bright and vivid that even these pictures out the front window of the truck turned out wonderful.  I took these shots just minutes apart from each other.  The colors were changing quickly the deeper the sun set beyond the horizon.
We got to the temple just before it was dark.  I was so happy to get these shots.
Isn't light a magical thing!

Quickly the light left the sky and the Christmas lights on the temple grounds were ablaze!

I'm grateful my kids still enjoy this tradition.
And we found the perfect time to go...
Instead of fighting the crowds before Christmas, wait until after the holiday and then go on a week night.
We enjoyed the night so much more as we were able to casually stroll, browse the visitor center and
ponder at the Nativity.  It was a wonderful night of LIGHT!

this is what i've been tappin' my foot to lately...

Go download this album by Mindy Gledhill.

It is a creative collection of songs.

The subject matter is love.

In all it's variety.

The love of sweetheart.

The love of a child.

The love a friend.

And the sort.

It's fun, quirky, sweet, cheesy, sensitive and silly but honestly...

isn't that what lasting love is all about!!

How we rang in 2011...

with a little Ryan...



with a little wrestling...

with a little sparkler dance...

with a little firework display...

and with a little kiss from my sweetheart.
but I didn't get a picture of that : )

A Christmas photo shoot with the Slades...

1.  Kristi to Matt, "Now Matt, move your foot over here just a bit more.  Not quite.  Okay, good.  Don't move.
Davis and Cooper get direction from Dad, "You stand over here.  No, not there.  Here.  No, here.  There.  That's good."

2.  Cooper points to anyone near him to blame the funny smell on.
Megan searches for the guilty face too.
  Maggie is begging between clenched teeth, "Could you just take the picture already!!"
Matt, "I agree with Maggie."

3.  Kristi has turned her back on the whole idea of this working.
Maddison decides she needs a licorice break.
Dave wonders "why do we do this??"
Maggie and Matt are still begging to take the blasted picture already!!
Brent just gives up and walks off set.

4.  Megan, "Oh she's ready???  Okay, here we go!  CHEESE!"
Kristi to Maddison, "Come on! Get that licorice out of your mouth and squeeze on in here."
Maggie, "I've been smiling the whole time!"

5.  Megan, "MOM!  Matt has me in a headlock!"
Maggie, "Now Matt.  Let's not put people in headlocks."
Brent leans in to the boys and whispers, "As soon as we get this picture we are outta here!"
Kristi, "Oh! I think I felt the baby kick!"
Dave still wonders "why do we do this??"

6.  Okay everyone say "Merry Christmas!"

7.  Now squeeze together and pretend like we love each other!!

Thank you Slade family for calling us your own.
And we do love you ~ very much.


As for the Brown house...

Amid the tangle of ribbons, bows, wrapping paper, bags, boxes and Santa string, we had a wonderful Christmas celebration.
Most of all, I feel so grateful that we know WHY we celebrate this blessed day.

Don't blink...

All of a sudden she's in the driver's seat.
Well, not without mom or dad beside her but that won't last for long and I'm pretty sure I'm not ready.

The trip to Drizzleland! (whoops) I mean Disneyland!

Our advent rhyme couldn't have been better.
The kids were totally surprised and so excited.
After reading it through a couple times and still trying to guess what we were doing, Cooper shouted, "you mean Jimmer Ferdette is in our truck?!?!"
So with a little help from mom and dad they finally figured out our destination.

We pulled into our hotel parking lot around 9 pm on Friday and unloaded the truck in pouring rain.
It continued to rain for the next 96 hours or in other words...the entire time we were there.
Mother Nature mixed it up though - drizzle, downpour, more than a drizzle/less than a downpour and so forth.  No blue sky at all.  Just a grayish cloud cover for four days.
But with ponchos, hot cocoa and warm churros a plenty we were up for the adventure.

I never brought out my nice camera so our pictures are those taken with Maddie's little point and shoot.


Cinderella's Castle was beautiful!

The silver lining to all the rain was that there was very little, if any, waiting for rides.  For the first time in the four trips we've made to Disneyland, this was the FIRST time we walked straight on to Splash Mountain. The ponchos really came in handy here : )

Taking a break from the rain

We had tickets to see BYU play in the John Wooden Classic.
The Honda Center was just up the street from our hotel.
It was fun to see Jimmer and the Cougs play live but sadly they lost the game.
I mean why not?  Rain on our parade was the theme of the trip.

 

At least we were dry!!

Mardi Gras baubles, bangles and beads

After riding Pirates we took a stroll through New Orleans Square.  I love this little piece of Disneyland.
The decorations were fabulous!  Maddison decided that she wanted to get a job here doing holiday decorations.  Wouldn't that be so much fun!!

California Adventures

Our main objective this day was to ride the new Toy Story ride as many times as possible.
This was the longest wait in either park and after riding it once it wasn't hard to tell why...
It is so much fun!!  If you like the Buzz ride in Disney, then you'll LOVE this one!
Because I'm not a "turn upside down in a roller coaster" kind of gal, Brent and the kids would ride Screamin' a few times while I waited in line at Toy Story and then they would get in line with me at a perfect join up spot, usually with warm churros in hand.  It worked out nicely.

Our wonderful friends, the Slades, met up with us.  We enjoyed dinner together and then...

we waited in the very rainy weather for the World of Color show.

While the weather dampened our spirits somewhat the show was spectacular!

It was our Merry Christmas present from the Slade family.  Thanks guys!  Love ya to pieces : )

The third day and then some

We woke up Monday to more of the same...rain!  Quite honestly we were discouraged.  We put on brave faces and ponchos and headed out yet again.  The rain was unrelenting and every drop seemed to dare us to give up.  We tried to ride all the big rides one last time but they would close down just as we'd approach or so it seemed.  Part of the excitement of preparing for the trip was looking forward to seeing the holiday fireworks then seeing it snow afterwards, the Christmas parade down Main Street and all the characters in their Christmas costumes.  Day after day all of this stuff was cancelled and today was no different.  It made me so sad.  Monday got the best of us and we went back to the hotel at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  The rain was at it's worst and the wind blew the pelting drops right into our faces as we slopped along.  We were wet, weary and whipped.  We all changed into jammies and while I took a load of dripping clothes to the hotel dryer, Brent took out the hair dryer and started in on the shoes.  Remember the Disney movie Monster's Inc.?  Well, our room smelled like we had taken a can of Sully's odorant WET DOG and dowsed our room with it.  25 pairs of wet socks and 10 pairs of soaking shoes make for a foul smell!  It was during this time that Cooper reported to me that Dad had said "H-E-double hockey sticks".  I'm sure he was thinking of the $$$$ signs being washed away in the rain.

We all went to bed.

I want to remind my kids about our family prayers during this trip.  At first we prayed that the weather would subside and we'd be able to have some sunshine.  But sometimes what is happening around us isn't going to change so we have to change the way we handle it.  Our prayers became more about enjoying the time we had together and being able to have positive attitudes and make the most of our trip.

Tuesday was our last day in the park.  When we woke away to the window we flew like a flash, tore open the shutter and threw up the sash.  When what to our wondering eyes should appear but no raindrops falling, we had nothing to fear!

Spirits were lifted.  Smiles all around.  Enthusiasm restored.

We were able to do our shopping, ride a bunch of rides and do some picture taking without our ponchos on!  We also enjoyed a delicious lunch of warm clam chowder in yummy bread bowls.  It was on my "must do" list while at Disneyland.  Check!!  It was a welcome handful of hours.  And just when we were leaving the park to head for home, the rain began to fall again.  It was our constant companion until we reached the Arizona border. 

So you might ask ~ Did you have a good time?
You bet!  The kids were awesome troopers but it's still too soon to ask Brent.  He's still a little bitter : )

It felt like a long time coming!

Davis was the last of the boys in his primary class to have a birthday.
But finally it came and
he turned twelve!



And the highlight was that he was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood.
What a handsome Deacon he is too.
As I watched him on Sunday I could hardly believe that he was mine.
Standing so tall, so reverently.
Goodness, he steals my heart.

Happy 12th birthday you hunk of greatness.
Watching you grow has been and continues to be one of my sweetest joys!

Advent ~ Day 17

'Twas the last day of school and all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a MOUSE.

But if we look hard, maybe take a drive in the truck,

I bet we could find HIM with a little luck!

Oh! And while we are there

We'll attend a game with some Jimmer flair!

Four days in Disneyland!

It's our present to the kids this year : )

It's suppose to rain.

Please pray for patches of sunshine!

If I had the nerve...

I'd make me an advent for every room in the house.

Isn't this one just too cute!!

You can read about it here and check out a couple more darling, not to be missed advent ideas.

 

 Oh goodness...I really, really want to recreate this one!

Rachel, Collette, Shannon????  How about it?

Advent success!

We really are having so much fun with our advent.
Or maybe it's just me!
But whatever the case, I'm so glad that it is part of our Christmas celebration.
I'm making up silly rhymes for each day.
Sometimes they're great and sometimes...well, sometimes they're not.
But it starts the morning with a laugh.
Like this one...

Go to the fridge and open the door(ing)
It's a holiday treat so your lunch won't be boring!

See what I mean : )

There has been bedtime stories, lunchtime treats, movie passes, gratitude notes, marshmallow roasting by the fire and such as that but yesterday I think I out did myself.  By the suggestion of Shannon (an advent buddy) I bought window markers.  This was my rhyme...

Let's make a list and check it twice,
Of Christmas traditions oh so nice.
Write them in the kitchen on the window
And believe it or not, Mom won't say NO!!

 

 

The kids had so much fun!  And truth be told, I wanted to get my hand in there too!

Go get yourself some markers!

I had a hard time finding these and when I did I bought the last one.  But I'll be on the lookout because I did some searching and found out that they have them in broad tip as well.

Oh the fun to come!!

A tender reminder of who's birthday we celebrate...

The sweet voice of this child adds a special touch to the narration.  Please pause my music.

The advent to end all advents!

This project began three years ago.
Yes...three YEARS ago!


(I'm still looking for a fun way to hang this, but at least it's on the wall)

There are not words to describe this process that pushed four friends to the brink of insanity at times and sheer joy at others.

But thank goodness for our determined Captain...she kept us focused, moving forward and allowed her home to be the epicenter of all this madness. There were no lengths she would not go to get the perfect fabric, the perfect match of thread or sew those crazy tiny blanket stitches when the rest of us gave up.  She would even sew for us after we had packed up for the day and left her and the mess behind.  When we would threaten to jump ship, she would warm us up with hot cocoa and scrumptious homemade gingerbread cake with real whipped cream topping.
Without her, this project would never have seen its final stitch.

Her crew mates were something else.

One was completely useless. Okay - I take that back. She did iron here and there and cut out necessary pieces of fabric and such.  Mostly she watched and talked, which is a good thing because she is a great story teller and she kept smiles and laughter going around in abundance.  She did buy us lunch on more than one occasion over the years and that was vital to our sanity.  We learned you cannot be successful crafters on empty stomachs!  And she was a problem solver.  If something got messed up then she could come up with a solution so that no blunder went unresolved.  Oh, and she did iron my very long and unruly piece of binding for which I was very thankful.  So to say she was completely useless is truly not true at all : )

And then there was the beginner.  She could sew of course but wanted to learn a little bit about quilting.  We brought her on board because we thought this would be a perfect way to start out...simple, not too daunting and we'd have it done quickly.  She had no idea what she had gotten herself into!  And she was ever the optimist.  She listened to lots of ranting and complaining and never held it against us.  She was in it for the long haul, good or bad.  After it was all said and done, she even thinks she wants to do another project together.  She is a Saint : )

So many stitches, lots of unpicking and stitching again.  So many hours of beginning then working then putting it away for another year.  Last year it was put away because I needed to get to Utah to say good-bye to my mom.  Just thinking back on all the talking, laughing, crying, sharing, comfortable silence, teaching and learning  that were shared over these pieces of fabric fills my heart to overflowing.

I'm so grateful to three wonderful women in my life that turned a supposedly little Christmas project into something so grand and precious.
My love to each of you...Collette, Rachel and Shannon.

And now...
I'm way excited to fill up the pockets and share the countdown with my kids!