Weirdos!

Here are some pictures demonstrating how odd some members of this family can be!

Ethan loves being buried in snow. I prefer sand myself.

I've noticed a lot of teenagers like to take pictures of themselves. I think this is quite odd.

Connor isn't sure whether he is a monster or a goofball.


Eric can't resist a good cup of hot chocolate. It brings out the best in him!

Ryan tried to go to church with sweats on last Sunday. Good thing he has a mom to watch out for him!

Ho Ho Ho!

Cute little elves!

We've got our Christmas tree and decorations up and there are even a few presents under the tree. I think we've finally got a little of the Christmas spirit with us finally!

Now Eric needs to stop working non-stop and I need to finish finals.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas?

What does it mean when it's December 8th, the fall decorations are still up, and the Christmas tree is sitting in the garage waiting to come in? I think it means the parents of the house are way too busy!
Ugh!

Family Pictures

These were taken by my friend, Cheri. She does a great job. She can even get my photo hating kids to look cute!

Murder!

Hope that title didn't scare anyone! Eric and I went to Kasey and Brian's house for a "How to Host a Murder" dinner. It was really fun. All of my brothers and my sister were there. Tyler brought a girl named Lindsay. She was very nice and funny. We had a good time. Since I'm so much older than my siblings, I've never had a chance to date with them. It was really fun. My dad, of course, popped into to see how things were going! Thanks Brian and Kasey!

Here's a picture of us before we left the house. The kids were very nice to us and said we looked good. The time period was the 1920's. Eric was a smooth talking bootlegger and I was a lounge singing assassin!

Band Competition

AF Marching Band waiting for the awards at BOA western regionals

We went down to St. George last weekend to watch Sam's last band competition for 2010. It was really fun. The marching band got 1st place at the Red Rocks competition and 2nd place at the Band of American Western Regionals competion. They have such a great show. Eric and I always get a little teary when we watch it.

Most importantly Sam had a really good time.

We took Eric's Honda Civic down to St. George since there were only five of us. It made me appreciate the van! The boys were really good, but were rather sick of being crammed together in the back seat by the time we got home. Eight hours in a car in a 24 hour period is a long time not to have some personal space.

Fall is here. Yuck!

Yes, the leaves are beautiful and the temperatures are cooler, but it only means one thing...SNOW! Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Here are some cute family pictures to make the snow coming more bearable!

Life lesson: finish college before you have kids!

Here's a picture of Sam in her AF marching band uniform. People say she looks just like me, but I don't see it.

The title of this post says it all: I was stupid enough to not finish my bachelors degree so I am finishing it now when I have four kids, a workaholic (in a good way) husband, and a part time job. Granted I get to work mainly from home and I have a wonderful husband and fantastic kids and I'm only taking 2 classes, but still. I wish I could go back to my stupid 21 year old self and say, "Just finish now!" Oh well.

I do think it's good for my kids to see me studying. I haven't had to push them as much to get homework done after school instead of before bed.

The kids are liking school. Ryan seems to be adapting to 7th grade really well. Sam is loving being a big 9th grader. Ethan is making friends in a class full of "new to him" kids. Connor hasn't started school yet, but he and I are both excited for this Wednesday when he heads to his last year of preschool. Eric is adjusting to being the new head counselor at Hillcrest. He's doing the chains again for Hillcrest home games and having a good time. He is also going to be the boys basketball score keeper this year. That man is way too busy. He's still doing the jail on Thursday and Friday nights.

Here's hoping for a great 2010-2011 school year!

Summer is over (NOOOOOOO!)

It's the time of year I dread and love. Eric goes back to school, but so do the kids.

We've had a good summer though. We went to Montana to see Todd and Aimee's family which was as wonderful as always. We got to go to the carnival with the Murdock cousins.

Now if we could just get the snow to wait until November!

Duck Creek

We went on a family trip to Duck Creek near Bryce Canyon at the end of June. It was an easy going trip with hiking at Bryce, seeing Toy Story 3, and eating good food. My favorite part of the trip was when Connor kept calling the marmot that lived in the field by our cabin a Mormon!

We've also been busy with Sam's marching band stuff. She's suffered through a couple of parades and this weekend she'll march in the Steel Days parade. Go flutes!

Ryan and Ethan have been playing a lot of computer and Nintendo games. Ryan got to go to his first motocross event with his friend KC and an Orem Owl's game with Travus. Ethan is hanging out with McRae a lot this summer since McRae will be moving soon. We'll really miss that family!

Connor is in swimming lessons where he does his best to get nothing above his chin wet! He is enjoying himself. He says his teacher is pretty and nice.

Eric and I laid sod a few weeks ago to finish off the backyard. It's only taken us 12 years to finish the grass! We're going to be staining the deck sometime before Eric goes back to work (nooooo!). I LOVE SUMMER!

Summer is finally here!

It's hard to believe since it just snowed last week. We lost the tree branch that held up my clothes line. Very disappointed since there are no other tree limbs within reach. We are very grateful for the moisture. Every drop counts here in the desert.

The kids ended school with lots of activities. Sam got on the honor roll. Ryan won the Presidential Excellence in Academics award at his school. Ethan got all A's on his report card. Connor learned how to write his name. Ryan and Sam both had band concerts. Ryan and Ethan participated (grudgingly- as you can see in the above picture) in the dance festival at their school.

Sam and Ryan headed for youth conference today. Ryan comes home tonight since he's just a deacon, but Sam won't be home until Saturday. She was pretty excited. She and two other girls were in charge of some geo caching activities. She thought it would be pretty fun.

Eric has another week of school and then he is done (mostly) until the first week of August. There are going to be some furlough days at the Canyons district this year, but we'll just try to forget about the money we're not getting and enjoy our time together.

So glad for the sunshine. Got all my flowers into pots. Still need to hang a basket and stain the deck, but so glad for the sun!

Stupid Utah Spring

Spring in Utah is about as delightful as the stomach flu. It's all about teasing with a beautiful sunny day and then sending in a day full of cold wind and snow pieces (hard to describe- not hale, but not snow). Ryan had a soccer game last night with the temp being at 44. Good thing it was an exciting game. Ryan scored a goal and his team won. Go Shadows!

The kids are busy with soccer and band. Sam went to her first flute sectional for marching band and had a great time. (Go flutes!) Ryan is playing on two soccer teams which keeps the van busy. Ethan is doing a great job on his soccer team playing awesome defense.

I just registered for my first college class since 1994. I am going to UVU in the fall. I meet with my advisor next week. I'm getting a bachelors degree in community health, health services administration. I figure my MA and cpc experience would mesh really well with that. I'm only a little scared! Eric is busy as ever. The last month of school isn't too stressful, but it is really busy for him.

Now, let's have some sun and temps in the 80's!

Spring Break!

Here's how we've spent the first two days of Eric's spring break: first I took him to the endodontist because he had a failed root canal and the right side of his face was so swollen he was unrecognizable. We spent $700 there. Then we came home and he took a bunch of medicine, did some salt water rinses, and went to bed. Today we are thinking the swelling is going down, but he still can't smile on the right side. Boy, it just can't get better than that. Oh and it's about 45 degrees for the high today.

On the bright side, we have a family party to look forward to tomorrow, no church on Sunday, and then everybody is out of school on Monday. We're hoping to see "How to Tame Your Dragon" on Monday.

I'd post a picture of Eric, but he probably would never forgive me.

Connor is four!

Connor gets a present from his Grandma and Grandpa Brown.

Being allergic to milk, Connor chose to have brownies with a marshmellow and chocolate top. Yum yum!

Connor had his fourth birthday on Sunday. He got some neat presents and had a good day. He seems to like being four because when he was three if someone asked how old he was he would say, "3 6 C and 5." Now he just says "Four."

He's a good boy and it's so fun watching him get bigger and learn new things.

We love you, Connor!

First crocus!

I just had to let the world know that the first crocus of the year has come up in my flower garden. It was soooo good to see it. No picture, but you can imagine my happiness.

Pictures!

I haven't been able to post pictures lately, but I think it's going to work today so here goes!

Sam performing at a winterguard competition. She hates those white outfits, but I think she looks great.

Ryan at the Klondike Derby in the west desert in January. He came home with very red cheeks!

Time flies!

It's school registration time around our house and some big things have happened. Sam is going into ninth grade and made it into advanced drama. Next up will be wind symphony try outs. Only four flutes are let in, so she needs to be playing her best! We also found out that she won't have to try out for marching band so that means her summer is going to be full of learning new skills (especially being humble).
Ryan is heading into seventh grade and we just found out he made it into the gifted and talented program. He'll be taking advanced classes in English and history. He's heard so much about it from Sam and he's looking forward to it. Now he just has to try and test into algebra and figure out if he'll be playing the french horn or the trumpet in band. He's been playing the trumpet in the elementary band program for the last two years, but he's interested in the french horn.
Ethan will soon get to sign up for his elementary band experience. He's planning on playing the clarinet the first year and then trying out the saxophone.
Connor will be in the four year old class in preschool on M, W, and F afternoons. He's learning a lot about numbers and letters this year. It's fun watching that brain wrap around so much new stuff.
Eric and I just can't believe how old we must be with such grown up kids.

It's January and it's cold and dark.

It is cold and dark. Some sunshine would really work right now. I am grateful for the recent snow. We aren't getting as much snow pack as usual and being the flower gardener that I am, I am worried.
The kids are busy with scouts and school activities. Eric has the UBSCT coming up and so he is leaving at 4:30 AM and getting home around 7:00 PM. Poor guy! It's hard being the perfect school counselor. We're all healthy and that's saying something for this time of year.

Happy Birthday Sam!

Here's a couple of pictures of last month's activities:

Ryan in his 6th grade class production of Macbeth.
Samantha turned 14 on December 23. She's a great person and we love her very much. She's busy with the space center and winterguard, not to mention being in the academy program and symphonic band. We're really proud of her.