Charlie Meets Gavin & Jaydon

Nikki & Shaun were here with the boys last weekend from Seattle (for those who don't know Nikki is Jenny's birth sister) We had the best time and finally got all these grandbabies together! Brandee says "Charlie this is Gavin" - "I'd rather look at pretty Aunt Nikki" says Charlie

"And I'd rather look at my puppy feetie jammies" says Gavin (held by Aunt Stephanie)

"Hey, those are cool, I gotta get me a pair"

"So this is your brother Jaydon? He's big" -"Yah, hey, both of you check out my feeties again?"

"I gotta help these little guys out - Let me tell ya how to handle these adults always takin pictures"

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?

Girls #!$^#%&!!!!

Why are girls so hard??? I really think they have a plot to drive me insane! It's not that what they do is so bad, it's that they make no sense, they raise my emotions to enormous levels, and I just can't figure them out! . . . I don't know! I ask my mom if I was like this. She said I just cried a lot. I could handle a crier. I could just hug and comfort till the cows come home! . . . . (the Lord must want me to learn more than that)

You know, snakes and snails and puppy dog tails sound gross, but Sugar makes you fat, and Spice gives you heartburn!

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!

Simon & the 3 Wise Men

I have to admit I'm sad to take all the Christmas decorations down. I am really dragging my feet on it. See I haven't even changed my background yet (never mind that I can't remember how, and that blog background site is down) I have friends who can't wait to get things back to normal and have them down the day after New Years (and that's even painful for them to wait that long) but I know there are others, like me, who hate to take it down. It means the festivities are over, and back to normal life. I did refrain from playing that song "I cry the day I take the Christmas tree down". That really is a song.
I came across a few scriptures though that have helped me get through this. Simon in the temple waited all his life to see the Christ child, but he wasn't there that Christmas night. He was days, weeks or even months after that. He had Christmas rejoicing in his heart when he finally saw that baby. And then there were the wise men. We know they didn't see the Christ child for like 3 years. They were probably riding those camels, singing Christmas carols and drinking eggnog that whole time! I think we should leave it all up and celebrate Christmas for 3 years at a time! (that would give me a lot longer to shop)

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!

Christmas Day

Our big highlight was watching little grandbaby Charlie open his presents. He was really more interested in the wrapping paper and eating it, than he was in any toys. He got lots of cute toys and books and a walker. Also both great grandma's got him some Mickey Mouse clothes!

. . . and for the big kids we got Rock Band! This is Jerry, C.J. & Kyle rockin out! There's some pretty good old 70's rock songs on it. Chuck even got into it! You should have seem him rocking out to "Roxanne" and "Mississippi Queen" (I'm so tempted but he won't want me to put the picture of him on it) We were in our pj's almost all day. We just played and played. I must state here on our blog that I did beat Chuck at the Beatles version of Monopoly. I carried him when he couldn't pay rent after buying "Sgt Peppers Ave" (he bought it just cuz he knew I wanted it - that's my favorite Beatles song, and I owned the other 2 properties next to it! He went broke buying it, but bankrupted me soon after) I love Christmas Day!

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.

Village People!

No, not the YMCA kind. This is my village, it's tiny, but it's all mine! Thanks to Jared Arnett I now have mountains, and I'm displaying it in my armoire in the living room. There are some of my neighbors who have huge Christmas Villages and tomorrow night we are hopefully joining them on the neighborhood Village Walk. I went to see the Martin's today, and fell in love with their Norman Rockwell houses. They have actual scenes from his paintings in the windows. For years I have gone to the Bartels for "Village Therapy" - that's when you get a cup of eggnog, or hot chocolate, plop right on the floor infront of it and spend at least an hour just staring at it. I know I'm not alone in this, but I pick out which house I live in and which route I'll be walking to get to the carolers in the main square. (I know, it's a little creepy) Last year I got to see the Arnetts, it took up their entire family room. You gotta check it out on youtube. See "Arnett Christmas Village". I was kind of dreading setting mine up, but about 1/2 way through it was FUN! I know you have to have a bit of a God Complex to create these little worlds, but it's a great way to stay in touch with your inner child; escape real life "playing house" with good clean fantasy "village people"!

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!