One more Brown family!

I can't leave out our newest family members! This is Nikki & Shaun, our other adopted kids. (sorry I couldn't get the picture bigger) For those who don't know our story, Jenni has an older sister who we have felt is a part of our family for 4 years now. She married Shaun Brown, making her officially a Brown! So here is their update; They live in Mukilteo, WA (just north of Seattle). We met them here living just a mile away from us (Did God have a hand in that or what??!!!) They moved up north when Shaun got transfered with Boeing. He's such a great daddy (even to our Brandee lately) Nikki looked for work in computers (her specialty area) but with the economy could not find a job. Instead she is quite the entrepreneur and just started a photography company. She got the equipment and put a little studio in her basement and is taking pictures and getting paid for it! (All those millions of pictures of her babies, that was for practice time!) She's pretty good. Jaydon is 3 years old now, and bright as a button, and little Gavin turned 1 this summer. They are 2 more of our sweet grandbaby boys!

Charlie Brown can rock & roll

A tearful goodbye; another one leaves the nest!

Bye Bye Aunt Brandee

Jerry, the tough one who didn't cry

The best to our Brambo

It's hard to say goodbye

even siblings who rival cry

2 sisters in Seattle

I'll miss your kiss!

Our last look as we drive away. Hours later after we stopped crying we were reading the Ensign aloud and read Pres. Eyrings tearful goodbye to his father as he left the nest . . . yah, the crying all started again!

From 1 to 90

June 6 Charlie turns 1 year old (seen here with his sweet mama)

And on July 3 Grandpa Breinholt turns 90!

(seen here with his 2 favorite daughters)

Grammy & Papa to the rescue

Not that we did all that much, but both Chuck and I have gone back to Washington to help out Nikki & Shaun in their move. They renovated a house and recently moved in. It's amazing the work Shaun did for 4 months everyday after a full days work at Boeing. He basically gutted the inside and made this house so beautiful. Nikki in the meantime has been raising two beautiful boys, Jayon & Gavin. She's the best mom! They don't have any family there, and since they are our other adopted kids (even named Brown!) we had to come help.

May - the Birthday Month

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Chuckie, Paul & Jerry!
Oops! How could I forget my sweet daughter in law, Stephanie too!

(we got this family picture taken in May, so there are more of us than the birthday peeps)

Five Generations!

We had Grandpa Breinholt over for dinner, then Grandma Brown stopped by, then low and behold C.J. & Steph & Charlie came! I was thrilled especially when Stephanie suggested we take a 5 generation picture. This is quite a feat, all five generations together! That is rare and we are blessed to have them all here on earth at one time! (We sure love and miss those on the other side too) Note that sweetest little baby smile! He knows this is a special moment!

Office Staff

Okay, I promised pictures of the office guys, so here they are! Danny Sutton, Operations manager (left) and Stephanie Simmons, "everything else" operator (right). We had a hard time coming up with that name. She does everything from computer drafting, web designing, general organizing, to icy beverage runs. Josie (below pictured at girls camp) is our part time secretary, and comic relief. She keeps us in stitches (and sometime when I have an hour I will list her and Steph's quirks - they have some doosies)

Speaking of girls camp, I believe I fired Josie after she wouldn't go to sleep. Danny can affirm this, as he was our priesthood there and could hear me from the other room yelling at 3 a.m. She keeps showing up at work however - and we're so glad. She's actually had a little leave of absence and we're glad she's back. I still need to get a picture of Brenda on here. She won't let us take a picture, and she actually works for Curt, but she is such a part of the family down there, so I'll keep trying. Chuck is pictured here at my old desk. When he was working out of town I was in this office, but now that he's back and I share a desk with Josie. I don't mind, until I hear Chuck snoring in the other room (heehee, it's actually only happened once or twice, after a night when he can't sleep cuz he's thinking about things at work) He's one hard worker and I'm so glad we have this big job at Sky Harbor so he'll be in town for a while. If anyone is wondering about Korea, it is still a possibility, but we have no more details than that.

These guys are the best and we couldn't have CB or K12 without them! (I'll work on getting our field staff next, so stay tuned)

Brandee's Birthday! (woohoo 19 Big Ones!)

Just some cute pictures of our beautiful Brandee on her special day! She celebrated with friends till long after midnight, then after a few hours of sleep, went with a friend to watch the sunrise on her special day! (sounds like college age life to me - no sleep!) Later we'll have Crab & Steaks (her favorite) and Cake & Ice Cream!
A cute story about Brandee. She loved crab from about 5 years old. (THAT was our mistake - letting her taste it!) She'd talk about it all the time, wanting us to make it for her. We couldn't really afford to have it be a regular dinner item, but we decided on her 7th birthday we'd take her to a fancy seafood restaraunt, Laundry's, and then go see Beauty and the Beast at Gammage.
We got to Laundry's and couldn't wait to see how much she was going to love this birthday dinner. Well she decided she was not in the mood for crab that night, so she is one of the rare few who has had a corndog at Laundry's. From then on she decided she loved Corndogs rather than Crab! However, she wouldn't go for corndogs for dinner tonight! (DARN)

What brings home the bacon

I realized I've never written about our company. The other love of my hubby's life. We've had our company, C.B. Contracting, Inc. for over 13 years now, and started a sister company called K-12 Defense Consultants. I put that logo on cuz it looks cooler than C.B.'s logo. I know it sounds like something education related, but it is the highest crash rating system for a barrier which is pretty much what we do now; install barriers at different government facilities. We have done work at military bases, federal reserve buildings, FBI, court houses, dams, police stations, car rental places, etc. It's amazing to think of how our business has grown and changed, from cutting concrete, to doing curbs & gutters in the 80's & 90's and now to anti-terrorist security. From our office being in our laundry room, then bedroom, then home office, to a real away from home office. We have really been blessed by God with work to keep us busy, great employees who work hard, and talented office staff. Stephanie at the office is working right now on our website, which you can link to at the right top corner links. I'll have to post some pictures of our staff on here too. Just over a year ago it was only Danny, Josie and I in the office, while Chuck and the other guys were working abroad (Japan, Guam, England, etc.) We were so crazy busy and understaffed I thought I'd loose my mind. I've been doing the bookkeeping for a long time now, and we've just grown to where I needed some serious help. Along came Stephanie, and "she completes me", or at least lets me focus more on the accounting (which BTW Paul is studying in school & which I hope he'll take over for me someday)
We also get to share the office with Curt, Chuck's brother and his company. They've got a great bunch of people too. Sometimes we all re-enact scenes from "The Office" and have great laughs. Josie plays jokes on Brenda (she's Jim), Stephanie has wadded paper she throws at Danny, and Danny has hidden my cell phone in the past. I didn't punch a hole in the wall though. At times we all watch Chuck when he falls asleep in his chair, and laugh when he starts snoring! No he really works hard, and we appreciate him so much. He was really inspired to get into something more specialized. He's a genius when it comes to thinking up how to do things. I just love his engineering mind! Chuck has been pretty excited lately because they are working on changing the operations of the barriers in a way that will save money in maintenance on the systems as well as be more environmentally safe (GREEN is in!) Hopefully it will make us some GREEN, and keep us in operations through this tough economy.

Ode to My Love

On this Valentine's Day I must tell my love Thank You for putting up with me for all these years! I know at times I can be a pain. (to think of someone who wouldn't just love roses on Valentines Day or a trip to Hawaii! BTW I get roses on our anniversary and love it) I think back at all the years, 26 to be exact. In some ways I can't believe it's been that long, in other ways it already feels like eternity. I've lived with him longer than I ever lived without him, and the years keep going, faster and faster. How blessed I am to spend them with you! You make me laugh, you take good care of me. You genuinely want me to be happy. You work hard, and you play hard. You help me to play too. I see you now as a grandpa and it warms my heart. You are so much more relaxed with Charlie than you were with our babies. Yet I remember one time in the delivery room, you snuggled close to my face and said "this is the greatest moment. I love this moment, and want to do it again!" Right then I just couldn't quite agree with you, but now I do. . . not . . that we'd ever be there again now, but you know what I mean. There have been many defining moments and will be more.

Grow Old With Me, The Best is Yet to Be!

Just a side note . . .

Okay, I want to acknowledge that I love my girls with all my heart. After that last entry you could be wondering. They are beautiful, and strong and have good hearts. They both care a lot about other people (and some day they'll care about my sanity - who wants a senile grandma for their kids?)My hats off to you guys with many girls (Camette, Curt, Clint, Derrick, DeeDee, etc.) How do you do it?

We're goin to the Superbowl!

Can you believe it?
Last night we went to Trey Bashas house to see Vai, (this is Jill with Vai) and you shoulda heard all the bantering between Cardinal fans and Philly fans (Vai's whole camera crew was there) They kept chanting the Eagles fight song. Now Vai is here on official business for NBC from Philadelphia so he had to be that way, although I heard in his interviews he was teasing about being for the Cardinals. Well I wonder how he's doing this afternoon! It was so fun to see him again. He's such a great guy and introduced us to all his friends. It was neat to meet the Bashas, and I told them we know Don Grace, they love that guy (he's our neighbor who has worked for Bashas forever!) They were such down to earth people. We got talking parenting, gospel & politics. I wish his dad would run again. It was a good time. . . . Well I gotta go settle Chuck down, he's like a little kid on Christmas, he's so excited! I must say I was proud of him. He got all the way through priesthood opening exercises before he left for home. That's more than I can say about some of my beehives - 3 of my girls didn't show up cuz they left for the game!

Strawberry Snow

We all went last weekend up to Strawberry and stayed in a friends cabin. (Woolfs) I say we all went, but we had to overlap and run to and from the valley to get everyone there. We had such a great time, and want to especially thank Paul & Skye who came down after Christmas to thaw out from the Utah weather only to have us drag them up to the White Mountains. We were so excited when the last morning we were there it had snowed. It was so beautiful! (I don't know why they weren't excited!) We had gone to this cabin years ago, and infact as we drove up Jerry started asking Brandee if she recognized it. She asked "is this where the trolls were?" and Jerry started laughing hysterically. They had scared her when she was about 5 years old at this cabin telling her that trolls were around the creek. It was fun to go back. We played games and ate and went to the gravel pits. I even went down on the sled. (I'll post more pictures later) Charlie tasted his first snow, thanks to Grandpa. That cute ski cap was one his daddy wore when he was that age! We played catch phrase and had the best time (when Stephanie wasn't swearing or Dad wasn't sexy dancing) We also played Mario Cart, and was amazed at how good Dad got at it so quick. C.J. & Kyle could not figure out how he kept taking 1st place. Even Stephanie won Kyle while nursing the baby! It was amazing! (Paul was actually playing for them under a blanket. It was funny to see how frustrated C.J. & Kyle got) We told Skye she needs to practise while Paul's at work, so she'd get 1st place instead of 2nd to Paul all the time. It was a weekend full of great memories!

Nine Ladies Dancing

Actually it was more than 9 ladies, but I have to write about the Chrisitan Dance Companies annual Christmas recital. They hold it every year at Mesa High, and we're just waiting for some anti-Christian to try to put a stop to it - there will be a fight to keep it. It is made up of girls (and one guy this year) from all different Christian religions, and is so incredible. The spirit of Christ and Christmas is so strong through the dance and music there. They go through His whole life beginning with his birth, and ending with an amazing rendition of "How Great Thou Art". It has become one of my holiday favorites! (see this link for a write up in our church magazine recently, my buddy Jill Adair wrote it!)
http://www.lds.org/Static%20Files/PDF/Magazines/NewEra/English/2008/NE_2008_12_11___02252_000_011.pdf

Christmas Past - First and Last

The year was 2002. We got invited to some foster family
Christmas parties where foster families got lots of presents for the whole family. It was nice, but we got way more than we needed. It's amazing to see how much the community helps out kids in need. They also had Santa which Kyle & Jenny got to meet. This was her first Christmas with us.






We also went down to Tucson on Christmas day to see Grandpa Brown in the hospital. It was such a special day. Grandma Brown was playing the piano in the cafeteria and some of the patients and their families had gathered around as we sang Christmas carols. One of my favorite things! I love it when Charlene does that! I will never forget that Christmas spending it with Dad Brown. He was/is such a special man. This was our last Christmas with him (here on earth) Special note: His parents, Granny & Papa both happened to be born on Christmas Day.

Anasazi Reminders

Last weekend we went to the annual Anasazi Fundraiser Dinner. It's the 4th year we've gone and it's always such a great event. This year we sat by Brian & Allison Trotter who have been our mentors in Anasazi (sorry the pix was from my phone) We were at the table next to Brooke White (who was in our ward growing up) She sang for it; "Let it Be" like she did on American Idol, and one she wrote "It's Gonna Change". It was moving! The next day was an Arbinger Seminar where we got to personally talk to Terry Warner, the founder. He reminded us of our "Way of Being", and how to do things with a heart of peace rather than a heart at war. Here is our Young Walker, Brandee with some friends at the skills expo. Kerri on the left was a trail walker. She's so awesome and is married and has a baby now. Susanne in the middle was on the trail with Brandee (dawnstar?) They were busting coals, like Brandee used to show us, and bongoing on drums. Even Kyle got into it! Great weekend!

The Iron Rod

We had a special FHE with guest appearance by Father Lehi.

All the Brown cousins came and Nana & Grandpa. We read through the scripture and then had the backyard set up with an iron rod, that lead to the white and delicious fruit (marshmellows). We had a great and spacious building on the slides. Those prideful people yelling to those at the rod even managed to get some to let go follow them. It was touching to see the ones at the rod tell them not to go, to come back and hang on. Afterwards we put our fruit into cups of hot chocolate and talked about what it means to hold to the rod. The little kids had great thoughts on it.

What a day and age we live in, where the mists are thick and the need to hold on greater than ever!

Horsing around on Thanksgiving

Thanks to Uncle Chris & Aunt Nora for such a fun Thanksgiving! We had the best food, and then
went out doors and rode it off. (well I didn't get on, I didn't want to hurt the poor beast, I was rather full) The kids rode, and even got tips on how to train and control the horse. My bro is like the best horse trainer, they really call him a "horse whisperer". It was great fun!

Parent Weekend at BYU

We went to Utah to visit Paul & Skye last weekend. It was so great! It was as much or more fun than going on a vacation, just to hang out with your kids. They are the cutest newlyweds, and working away at life. Their basement apartment overlooks the town of Cedar Hills, including the Tipanogas Temple where they got married. I finally our last morning got a picture with all of us in our BYU Parent Weekend shirts. We went the first day to the art museum there and what I thought would be torture for Chuck ended up being something we couldn't tear him away from. They had an exhibit of Geneva Steel, so he got his little "Bob the Builder" face on and was facinated by that exhibit. (wish I coulda got a picture there) Paul teased me the whole time about my picture taking. He calls me a Japanese tourist.
I found out that Sky is a professional shopper. She and her mom took me shopping and gave me a whole new look. We got lots of cute sweaters that I can only wear for a few months in AZ. Skye said it was much funner to spend someone elses money (yah, woulda been for me too!) We also went to the BYU game. It was

amazing. I've only been to ASU games and there is a whole different feeling there. They had a tailgate party, which involved plinko game, watching Vocal Point sing, and drinking hot chocolate and eating donuts! We saw Vai Sikahema and his family, as well as Vanessa Gissell and her family. Her daughter married the quarter back, Max Hall, and her other daughter married another player on the team. It was perfect weather too. We found some seats up by Skye's family and watched the first 1/2 of the game, then went back to their apartment and had wings and watched the second 1/2. What a great time! It was so good to be with them. Yah, we'll be visiting Utah more often!