Brown's Bites

So my sis-in-laws and I have started a recipe blog a little bit ago. I have been terrible at posting recipes even though I have ton to add. It's just getting started but everything is really easy and yummy! You can find the link under my "happiness" links in my left side bar. 

Grandma Jo

We had one other birthday yesterday... Grandma Jo! We had a great evening with grandma. A little dinner, cake and ice cream. Everyone had fun. We are sad that it will be the last time we will all (Aaron we missed you last night) be together before the wedding festivities begin. 29 years old is a great age to head out on an adventure to  the Georgian beaches with a new hubby! 

Happy news:  One more year and you go into a new age bracket for your races. Which means instead of placing 3rd, you'll smoke the pants off the others! 

Happy Birthday Logan!

Sorry this is one day late... here are my excuses 1. my kids are barfing oh wait that's enough reasons!

He's our baby and now he's 13!

 

Logan is messy:

Messy when he eats

Messy when he dresses

Messy in his room

Common questions posed to Logan:

"Did you use shampoo?"

"Did you brush your teeth?... with toothpaste?"

Why do we love that messy boy so much?

Kaylie has loved her uncle Logan from day 1!

He is sweetest kid I know even if he is officially a teenager now!

I hope all your dreams come true this year little brother!

Tornado in Colorado

The tornado that went through Colorado today was a little too close to home for comfort! All my family is safe. For the full news story you can go to 9news. The red arrow on the map below shows the route of that the f2 -f3 tornado took. The pink dot shows my town. Loveland goes east just to the other side of I-25. Luckily all of my family lives on the west outskirts! 

One report that I read said that people weren't sure if it was a tornado because it was sooo huge!

A semi was overturned on I-25

 A few schools and a daycare took some close calls but all the children were safe. 

There looks to be a ton of damage all over the place

Colorado is no stranger to hail but this was a little out of control!

My family and a large part of CO is under tornado watch and warning for the remainder of the day. Hopefully there won't be too much to report.

Easy Fruit Dip

3 cups plain Yogurt

1 (3 oz.) instant vanilla pudding package

1 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

 

Fold pudding mix into yogurt. Add cinnamon and nutmeg. Let chill one hour. Sprinkle top with cinnamon to serve.

I really love the dip because it had a sweet tangy taste. Have fun with your fruit this summer. 

Book Club

I wanted to post a few things about book club that I enjoyed tonight, even if I was only half there in brain cells. 

First, I picked Persuasion, by Jane Austen. One of my most favorite Austen Novels. 

Second, I did fruit Kabobs for refreshments. I saw the most mouth watering ones on Kimberly's blog and have been looking for an excuse to make some up. Mine pale in comparison to how hers looked but I hope she doctored her pictures and was fine to accept the consolation that my fruit did taste good. The fruit dip I did turned out way yummy and was ridiculously easy to make. 

Third, James woke up a bit before everyone left. I think he was just a bit stressed from the day. He just sat and cuddled with me. After everyone left he ate a fruit Kabob, and then cuddled with me a bit more and then went back to bed.

I know there were ladies who read the book and I would love to here from you! 

So sweet!

Kaylie spring '05

James Today

My life is going too fast!  I really wouldn't mind if it would just slow down a bit. One of my favorite employees at the grocery store this morning was saying to me how fast kids grow up and to enjoy every bit of their childhood. I think I am. But then today as I looked at this picture of James and my mind went back to the picture posted of Kaylie, and I realized I need to stop and smell the flowers just a little more.

Too Much Fun For One Day!

7:15 - Wake up and get ready for the day

8:00 - Kids up and ready for the day

8:35 - Leave to take Kaylie to preschool

9:00 - Mommy and James grocery shop

10:00 - Home to put groceries away, 

touch up house work, get kids things ready for wedding.

11:15 - pick up Kaylie

11:45 - lunch for kids get myself ready for wedding

12:15 - leave for Salt Lake Temple

12:30 - drop Ryan off for wedding ceremony

Kids and I go get gas and return to Temple square to 

wait for the ceremony to be over. 

1:40 - ceremony finishes everyone waits for the bride and groom to come and greet everyone. 

2:15 Bride and Groom finally come out/ pictures

3:00 Early dinner with friends

4:00 Home to make fruit kabobs and dip for book club

6:00 leave for reception

8:10 home from reception

8:30 Book club / Kids to bed

Sorry for the run down but as I was sitting here I couldn't believe that all of that happened in one day? (It felt like 2)

Beau and Janessa Hintze

Sweet Girl!

My new favorite picture of James... He is such a bird!

James and Megan 

Our cute friends, who are having their first baby in July!

I think I might put this picture in as the family pic instead of the one from the MTC that I had to cut uncle Eric out of!

A Haircut

James has really fast growing hair and requires a clean up a little more frequently than I would like to pay for one. I have been reluctant to cut his hair myself. I have done Ryan's on occasion, but a little boy was a little more daunting. Ryan put Cars into the laptop DVD player, and James was good to go. He could have cared less what I was doing to him. It was kind of fun.

I don't know what I was so worried about. He still looks a little "three stoogish" or maybe like a baby monk. He can't seem to grow much hair on the side of his head, and every time he gets his hair cut that fact is greatly accentuated.  

Mom

We Love you Mom/Maja! We wish we could see today and give you hugs and kisses!

Thanks for all you do to make our family a loving success. 

Face Lift

Yay! I spent sometime on the blog last night and today. I really should have been doing other things, like sleeping. I wanted it to be more "springish". I don't think its much more "springish" than before. Maybe I'll try again in a couple months. If you scroll down there is a cute surprise!

The helicopter

This post is for friends and family who live off campus. For those of our friends who have the blessing of UMed in your backyard this may hardly be post worthy! The blog has been a little Kaylie lopsided, and I have another post to put up about Kaylie. So before I could do that I wanted to make sure I shared some love about our little guy. 

The University hospital has moved it's helipad right behind the campus housing the last 2 summers. For some this is boarder line unbearable  but the placement of our apartment allows it to be mostly just fun for James. He runs to the window to check it out if we are inside. When we are outside he either sits and stares, or gets very excited jumping up and down and clapping. He can't quite say the word so it comes out "cicocter". 

Last night Kaylie had sleepover at Grandma Jo's so we took James out for a little "only child" spoiling and got him a $3 helicopter (big spenders, I know). 

Don't let this really cute post fool you though the little monster has had quite a week while getting some new teeth way in the back. He has been out of control on the moody scale, and has decided he will no longer sit in his highchair or the table for that matter. I am sure it will pass he is usually such a mellow laid back guy. Tantrums just aren't really his thing and is really not good at giving a convincing fit... but we won't tell him that. 

The Party

The princesses: Princess Vivi Princess Kaylie, Princess Fiel, Princess Megan, Princess Adelle, Princess Elsa. Not Pictured: Princess Nicole (who came after the picture was taken)

She's 4!

                                  

A Piñata

I know it's been a few days but Kaylie did have a party to go with the cake! Kaylie had two other requests besides a Belle cake... 1. a princess party & 2. a piñata. Well, for the piñata... after I decided that I didn't want to spend $15 -$20 on a piñata this year and would make my own if that's what my daughter really wanted.

I procrastinated getting it done and about 42 hours before the party started, I began. Directions for making a piñata include doing at least 3 layers of paper maché and allowing 24 hours for each of those layers to dry before decorating that means 72 hours plus decorating! I was already 30 hours behind. So the first layer got 12 hours to dry and the next 2 average about 4 or 5 hours of the blow dryer, letting it set, putting it in the freezer to get the balloon shrink back down after I over heated it with the blow dryer. 

Have I even talked about decorating yet? Nope. That's where the real fun begins. I started decorating at about 7:30 monday night ... 20 hours 'till party time... Jenny came over and help for about an hour and we made great progress... the next support came at about 9:30... Tammie she was a trooper and stayed with me until we finished at 1:30 in the morning! It don't think it was too much torture we talked, laughed and watched  August Rush. 

So we finished with 14 hours to spare... not bad!

It was pretty big it ended up being abound 14" around.

And then it broke. I guess that's what you make a piñata for.