Christmas Day 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone! Here are some pictures of our day.

Gingerbread House

The kids have been begging us to make a gingerbread house this year and we finally got around to doing it. The kids worked so hard so of course I have to share their finished product with everyone.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

It's a good thing Jeremy loves to bake! He makes these yummy sugar cookies every year and this year wouldn't be any different. He and the kids must have frosted over 100 cookies. We gave them out this year as neighbor gifts so he made a lot! They are too much work for me so thanks dad for baking these for us.

Brown's Christmas Disco

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Decorations

Christmas Card 2008

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I have to force myself to wait until at least Thanksgiving before I get all of the decorations out. I enjoy watching the kids place things around the house and get excited! We hope this holiday season finds everyone in good health and cheer! I am so grateful that we have family that live so close to spend the holidays with and for our Savior, without him we wouldn't even have the season.

Twilight Movie Again!

I am a little behind in blogging and need to catch up a bit. Last weekend my mother-in-law took me and my two sister-in-laws to see Twilight. We all read the books together and she promised us a girls night out when the movie came out. I loved it even more the second time. I can't wait for the second movie to come out. We will keep up the tradition and all see it together.

After the movie, Laurene (my mother-in-law) took us out to lunch to Red Robin. It was a fun girls time with no kids (except for newborn Charlotte, but she can come with us anytime - she was such a good baby)!

Twilight Movie Tonight!

The movie was awesome! We loved it. What did everyone else think??



I had to take a little cat nap before the movie or I would never make it the next morning at work. Katelyn and Jeremy played Guitar Hero all night to stay awake!






Jeremy, Katelyn and I are going to the midnight showing of Twilight tonight (Tianna and Gavin are having a sleepover with Grandma Isaac)! We are so excited we can't wait. Katelyn and I are going to wear our Twilight shirts in support of "Team Edward". Jeremy is worried that he will be the only dude at the show. I told him he is probably right, but who cares! I am excited to see all the crazy fans. I will definately take my camera tonight and post some pictures of what I'm sure will be a crazy crowd!

Girls Night Out!

Last night my mom took me and my two sisters to the Carrie Underwood Concert. I love Carrie and her concert was awesome! I don't get to spend too much time with my sisters because of our different schedules and hectic lives so it was fun to spend a night out with them. Before the concert we all went to Costa Vida for dinner, yum! Thanks for the fun night, love you guys!

Fun idea for Family Home Evening

This past weekend I was looking through the Friend for a fun activity that we could do for family night on Monday. I found this cute idea for making "Testimony Gloves". You start out by talking about how gloves serve several purposes and are a protection for our hand. Each finger represents a part of your testimony (Book of Mormon, President Monson, Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ and Church is true). The kids had a lot of fun and it actually kept their attention the whole time (which was a first)! So I wanted to share the idea with you to try with your families.

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

Today is Katelyn's 12th birthday. I can't believe she will be in Young Womens now. Her first Beehive activity is tomorrow night. She is pretty excited. She was literally the last one in her primary class so she was counting down the days. Katelyn got a "Twilight" birthday, including an Edward T-shit, Twilight poster, Twilight soundtrack, and movie tickets to the midnight show (it's a school night so I hesitated, but thought what the heck)she deserves a night out with just mom and dad. When her grandparents asked what she wanted for her birthday, my response was anything Twilight related. Unfortanely, Katelyn is sicker than a dog today. She has a nasty chest cold and is just miserable, poor thing. We love you Katelyn! It has been a wonderful 12 years.

Trick or Treating

Here are some pictures of the kids before we went out trick or treating. Katelyn wanted to stay and pass out the candy this year so Jer and I took Tianna & Gavin. Of course the kids had a good time and got lots of candy.

Pumpkin Carving

We have been promising the kids that we would carve pumpkins this year, so tonight we finally did it! Man they are a lot of work. It took us(daddy)two hours to do three pumpkins! The kids loved getting their hands in the pumpkin guts and picking out the seeds for grandma Isaac to roast.

Dedicated to my wonderful husband!

As I mentioned in an earlier post Jeremy was laid off 3 weeks ago from eBay. It has been very hard on him and with the turmoil in the market lately, he often wonders if he will ever find any kind of employment...so I want to share with him a quote that I read today.

This is from President Hinckley:

"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us,...if we put our trust in Him, if we pray to Him, if we live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers."

Hang in there! We love you!

Twilight Fans!

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and appreciate the kind way you always handle things.

Jeremy read the books too!


Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

You are talented, knowledgeable and people are drawn to you. You like a good challenge and enjoy the company of a select few, but this is because you are picky and can be set in your ways. Sometimes you over react when things don’t go well, but your intentions are good and you’re priority is protecting the ones that you love.


I finally convinced my mom to read the Twilight Series. She wasn't sure if she would at first, but within 3 weeks she read them all! Ha Ha mom, I knew you wouldn't be able to put them down once you started.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

On October 25th, Jer turned 35! We started out the day with several "Happy Birthday" drawings & cards that the kids had made. Those of you who have little kids know what I mean when I say the drawings kept coming and coming. We took the kids to see High School Musical 3(Dad was a good sport to sit through that)! It was a cute show, the kids loved it of course. Later that night, his entire family came over for a party. Grandma Brown bought Papa Murphy's pizza and a cheesecake. It was a good time. It gave Jeremy a reason to get out of bed and shower for the day (Ha Ha).

Pajama Party!

While I was away on my New York trip Grandma Brown and the kids made these pajamas. Aren't they cute? They look like something you would buy in a store. Grandma is great with the sewing machine. Anytime we need a hole patched up or pants hemmed, we go to Grandmas' house. It's horrible that I don't know how to do that stuff.

Snowbird

Grandma Brown took the kids up to Snowbird to ride the tram and play around in the snow.

Hee Haws!

So I have gotten a little behind in blogging and needed to play a little catch up. We went to Hee Haws with Ryan and Courtney (& Kids) last weekend. Courtney is so good about taking her kids to places like this every year so I am glad she gave us a call to come along. The kids had a blast. They love playing with their cousins. It was like sending the kids off to play at a giant playground while the adults just sat around and relaxed.

Los Angeles

I got the opportunity to go to Los Angeles this past week for work. I was doing some training in one of our Branch Offices. It was a short trip - only two days, but the weather was beautiful and the view from the building we were in was amazing. It was nice knowing Jeremy was home taking care of the kids. If I made more money I think I could get used to the idea of having Jeremy stay home and be "Mr. Mom". He has done a good job at keeping up on the laundry and he has dinner ready for us every night. To his defense, he is just trying to keep busy and keep his mind off the fact that he is unemployed. He would never go for me supporing the family while he stays at home, but it's a nice idea -ha ha!

Surprise!

So I came back from New York Friday night and was waiting to get my bags at the baggage claim. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this strange man come up and stand right behind me. He wasn't moving and he was definitely too close and in my space so I started to scoot over to the left a bit so I had some room. As I did that I glanced up to see who this person was standing so close and to my absolute surprise it was JEREMY! Yes, Jeremy my husband who was supposed to be in the Philippines until the end of the month. I screamed (and everyone looked at us, including Security) and then started to cry. What a nice surprise. eBay needed him to come home and be back to work by Monday.

Unfortunately, eBay announced a 10% job cut and Jeremy's department was directly affected by this news. Jeremy was laid off on Monday. No wonder they wanted him back so soon. We are really sad, but are trying to stay positive! General Conference was so good this year. Who would have thought that a lot of the things the Apostles talked about would actually hit so close to home. We are still very blessed and know that the Lord will look out for us! After all isn't this what life is all about, trials and tribulations that make us stronger people? If anyone has any good job leads, preferably the ones that pay over six digits, let us know (Ha Ha)!

New York City - Here I Come!

On Monday I am going to New York for the week to attend a Corporate Actions Conference with my boss and a few colleagues from our Tax Department. I am pretty excited to go. New York is an exciting city and really beautiful this time of year. Grandma Brown will be watching the kids while I am gone - they are excited for the extended sleepover. I will miss the kids dearly, but I am "secretly" thrilled to have "me" time and go shopping!!

Kids Night Out with Jason!

So my wonderful brother-in-law asked me if he could take the kids out to dinner and a movie tonight. Well let's see, I wouldn't have to make the commute from work to go pick up the kids, an evening to myself to do whatever I wanted and I didn't have to make dinner...heck ya Jason you can be out with them as late as you want (they don't have school tomorrow becasue of SEP conference)so it worked out great. Jason took them to Carl's Jr, one of their favorite places because they love the toy gym and then went to see Egor. They must have gotten tattoos in their kids meal because they had them all over their arms and faces (after this picture was taken Gavin went into the bathroom and put a tattoo right between his eyes on his forehead). Thanks Jason! The kids had a great time (and so did mom having the place all to herself).

Welcome Home Trailer!

Okay so it's not quite home yet but it has been found. I got a call from the San Juan County (Southern Utah) sheriffs office letting me know they found our trailer. The guy that stole our trailer is in the business of selling high price elk tags. A bunch of guys go in on it and all they have to do is come to Utah and they have an elk tag, a trailer to stay in while they hunt and a 4-wheeler. Our trailer was being used for that purpose. They "thief" had no intention of selling off our trailer he was going to keep it and use it as a "hotel" for his little business. I guess in the little town they were at there were a couple reports of stolen 4 wheelers in the surrounding area and in small towns like that news travels fast. Some local people were suspicious when they saw the same guy towing two different trailers (the other one being our neighbors) and several 4 wheelers to this particular campsite so they called the police. They police went to this campsite and...busted. Of course the hunters had no idea that all of the items were stolen. They cooperated with the police and gave them as much information on this guy as they could and they arrested him that afternoon. I have to admit I am a little worried about the condition of the trailer, but the detective told me it was in really good shape so we'll see. I just have to figure out how I am going to get that trailer back up here. I am hoping the insurance company will have it towed to me.

Cheerleading Try-outs Update

Yeah...Katelyn made the squad. Her dad and I don't know what we are in for, but we were excited for her.

Edwards Lullaby!

Okay, so I am totally hooked on these books. I just finished the first one and L.O.V.E.D it. I am starting the second one tonight. Thanks Stacy and Courtney!!

Edward & Bella (Katelyn wanted me to post this picture). She is a fan too!

Cheerleading Try-outs

On a happier note, Katelyn had cheerleader tryouts today. She is only in the sixth grade (I personally think that is way too young to start cheerleading), but her school is a middle school that goes through ninth grade and they allow 6th graders to be on the cheerleading squad so of course she wanted to try out. She was really nervous, but she went through with it. As a mother you just sit back and bite your nails and hope your kids make the team so they don't have to go through that hurt and disappointment if they don't, but I had the talk with her that life goes on and there are other things you can do if you don't make cheerleading. The results will be announced Monday so stay tuned...

Bye Bye Trailer!

So as luck would have it, while Jeremy is out of the country for work, I got a phone call from a neighbor last night and was told that our trailer had been stolen. I thought, that's impossible. You can't steal a trailer - they are too big, people would totally notice if that were happening. Besides our trailer is locked up down our street in our neighborhood RV parking area behind a locked gate. I had to go down and see for myself. Sure enough our trailer and several other trailers parked there were GONE, VANISHED, STOLEN! Of course we called the police and filed a report and I called our insurance company today. These are hard times so people go to extreme measures so keep an eye on your belongings. If our neighbor hadn't noticed I don't know how many days would have gone by before we noticed it was missing.

Super Saturday

Oh you gotta love Super Saturdays. One thing is for sure, I am not crafty and it takes me hours to do one project. I would rather go to Quilted Bear or Tai Pan Trading for this kind of stuff, but the display looked so cute so I thought I would give it a try. I was very overwhelmed when I saw how many pieces this thing had, but I am pretty proud of myself. It took me 4 hours to do this turkey. He is about 3 1/2 feet tall. Thank you Katelyn for babysitting the kids so I could go. I can't wait to put him out in November!