President Hinkley was such a great man. He accomplished so much. We always looked forward to listening to him and watching him speak. He had such a great spirit was a great sense of humor. I know he missed his wife so much but he continued to the work of the Lord. He will be missed but we are so happy he is with Marjorie again.
This is the 2nd blog today. This has been on my to do list, which never seems to get a dent in it.
Brooklynn is completely potty trained-YA!!! She even gets up during the night to go potty. She runs around naked a lot. She got her big girl bed this week, my grandpa made it for her. Great Gpa was so bored at home so he offered to build it for her, we love Gpa. It is so cute. She hated it for several nights though. She kept saying "I don't wike my bed, I don't want it, I seep in mommy's bed". She is so funny. She keeps trying to say that now but I just say I know hunny, go to bed and she's fine.
Kendra is wanting so bad to play in the snow but Parker can't yet and she doesn't want to play by herself. And it seems all our neighbors have the flu. So she just gets to hang out with mom. She is doing so good in school. She is learning to spell more words and trying to read. We went to a funeral in January and Kendra saw her great grandma crying and she did fine until we got home and then broke down crying because she doesn't want Grandma to die. She kept crying for about an hour that night. I promised we would get over to see Great Gpa and Gma more often.
Holy snow storm this weekend. I went out to shovel before church on sunday and the snow was up to my knees, our front door was covered and the swing set in our back yard is almost covered. It was insane.
Sorry-I don't know how to rotate the pictures, if and when I figure it out, I'll fix it.
Before surgery. . .
After. Finally calmed down.
So Friday we had to be at the hospital by 6:30 and because of the snowstorm we had to leave at 5:30. And of course he didn't go back to have the surgery until about 8:45. And mabey it's a mom thing but I counted every minute, the DR told us it would only take about 1/2 hour so at the 1/2 hour mark I was even more nervous. About 20 mins later the DR came out and said everything went great. They gave him the gas mask and intubated him (which scares me)-I think I'm too much of a worrying mom. He gave us prescriptions and said we could go back soon, they would call us. Not even 2 mins later they called and told us to go back to recovery. Parker was freaking out. Trying to pull out his IV and screaming that something was stuck in his throat, gagging. He was so figity and cranky. Just seeing him laying in that bed, freaked out - I wanted to just cry for him. It took him about an hour to calm down and start eating ice/popcicles. Finally we got to go home. He wouldn't sleep the whole day, he looked like a walking zombie. We gave him lots of popcicles, and all of his meds. Friday night went fairly well. Saturday night he was up for 3 hours throwing up (I can't even imagine how that feels after surgery in your throat). We quit giving him pain meds, and just stuck with motrin and he is doing great. He is eating really well as of Sunday night. He still puts up a fight with taking his meds. We were really surprised at how well he did.
Sunday Parker started complaining of a sore throat and sometimes you just blow it off thinking it will go away and kids are over-reacting. Monday he stayed home from school but it wasn't until night time that he was crying that it was hurting, but of course it was after Dr's were closed so Wayne gave him a blessing and we gave him motrin and sent him to bed. He woke up during the night crying that the blessing didn't work and now his ear was hurting. We gave him more motrin and sent him to bed again and then at 830 called the Dr to get him in. He ended up with strep and an ear infection (which he hasn't had since he was 2 because he had tubes put in). He told us to call and ENT to get his tonsils and adnoids out. He said "there are big tonsils and there are HUGE tonsils, his are HUGE". So we called and there was a cancelation the next day for the consult. We called to get the surgery set up and they can do it Feb 1. They said he would be down for 10-14 days. We'll make sure to get lots of homework for him, HA HA!!! Wayne talked to him about his blessing and talked to him about what was said. He also said if his throat had gotten better, he wouldn't have had to go see the Dr. and have him see his tonsils to see that they really needed to come out. Blessings aren't always answered in the way we would like them to be. Sometimes we have to be patient and look for the blessings.
So Brooklynn is potty training herself. She takes off her diaper and runs for the bathroom. She hasn't had any accidents yet, only in her diaper. But she has been dry more times than wet. She is so proud of herself. We told her, when she is potty trained she can get a big girl bed. She is really growing up.
Happy New Year to everyone. For those of you who have expressed disappointment in my blogging these past 2 months, I've posted 3 now today:) We hope 2008 will start off great and last all year long for everyone.
It's been quite a year. 2007 went by so fast. This year we did a lot of camping and fishing. We went to Boondocks for the first time. We took the kids to Disneyland/Sea World/Wild Animal Park this past fall. I love visiting California
Wayne is still working for a Dentist as an associate. He has been fishing quite a bit, went on the bow hunt(I think he just likes to camp, just kidding, he really tried to get a dear) and is now attempting to build his own model airplane. He went flying with Shaun a couple of times. He bought a simulator to practice flying, and also bought xbox 360 (peer presure). He went to Las Vegas with his work and saw blue man group and even danced (if you can believe that).
I turned the big 30 this year and Wayne surprised me with a party/get together with our families. He also dropped the kids off with Gma over night and we went and stayed at the grand america hotel, went to Les Mis, went shopping and saw Pirates (all in 2 days). It was a lot of fun. I started working for a lady doing digital work. It's been fun learning new things. I havn't had much time to scrapbook but I was able to get a few pages done. Wayne and I were called as the Ward Activities Committee people and have been running around nonstop since August.
Parker turned 7 this year (8 in 2008). I can't believe how big he is. He has lost 3 teeth, learned how to heeley (which he is quite good at, he still makes me nervous). He still does NOT like going to see Wayne for his checkups though. He is learning to like swimming more. He played soccer, baseball, basketball and wrestling. We probably could have fit more sports in but we needed a break. We took sea doos to a lake and both Parker and Kendra loved it. Parker just wants to do anything his dad does.
Kendra turned the big 5. She is in Preschool again but still loves it. She is learning to write, spell and read. She took Gymnastics this year. She really is quite the singer. She wants to take singing lessons. She still loves the water. I think she was in our small pool this summer almost every day. She went to a little girls spa and had her nails and hair done (which she loved). She still loves to cook in the kitchen with me.
Brooklynn turned 2. She grew a few more teeth this year. She is loving to talk and run and play and be a girl. She loves dressups and watching princess movies. Just near the end of the swimming season, she started to love the water. She learned the word No very quickly and tries to get away with saying it to me all the time. She loves to get dirtier than Parker when we go camping. This was her first year to try sledding and she got more worn out than we did.
The Mateja's and The Davis's spent a few months in Utah and it was fun to visit with them and show them the sites. Brad and Jen Hammond came up to visit for a day and we bbq'd with them, Briggs, and Burdett's. We had another Christmas get together and saw Jared and Nicole, Briggs, Stephensons, Birch's and Jensen's. It's always fun to see friends. We have also gone to visit the Hintons in small town Loa a few times.
We are so grateful for our family and our friends. We have been so blessed this year.
Merry Christmas from the Brown's. 
In case anyone is wondering, yes you are getting a christmas card it's just been delayed.
We all had a fun Christmas. Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa and the kids slept until 8:30 Christmas morning. 
Parker's favorites - he got a small remote helicopter, a remote dinosaur(which is way cool), nintendo DS with a mario game(which he shares with me quite a bit), and a BYU jersey.
Kendra's favorites - Island Barbie, Barbie car, Barbie horse, Bride and groom Barbie (is there a theme here?) oh and nintendo DS with a barbie game.
Brooklynn's favorites - Elmo (all the way), oger babies (ugly things but she loves them), princess babies.
Ok, I saw this idea and thought it would be fun to try it. If you are interested in posting some fun recipes that you have tried and love, let me know. I hope everyone will want to participate. Just go to the link on the right.
Before I start into the story you need to know that for some odd reason, Brooklynn calls her bugers "flies". So we were driving together the other day and Brooklynn says "Mom, look at my flys" so I turn around only to find her picking her nose and showing me her "flies". Kendra, so calmly and not cracking a smile says to her "Brooklynn, don't eat your flies". It was the funniest thing. It's good to have kids around that can make you laugh everyday.
Ok I know I just posted our Halloween pictures but we went to Wheeler Farm this past week and it was so pretty. I took some cute pictures of the kids.
Halloween was fun and exhausting. Are costumes a ton more $ this year or is it just me? We carved our pumpkins Monday for FHE. Wayne of course did a tooth, I did a funny scarecrow face, Parker-a bat, Kendra- a cat and Brooklynn-a smiley face. Parker is in a new school this year and the principal decided no costumes. Which I don't think I liked. He was a green skeleton. Kendra was able to dress up for preschool and she was a witch princess, but wouldn't wear her hat. Brooklynn was little red riding hood. Brooklynn's little legs went a lot further this year and she absolutely loved trick or treating. We dropped Wayne and Brooklynn off and I took the other 2 kids around a little bit more, they could have kept going for a long time.
Ok so I went outside a few weeks ago and there was a small little hole in our yard. I called the maintenance people and they told me to go buy some bait. Well of course I didn't and today when I went outside there are several holes and dirt mounds from this obnoxious critter. So I got online to see what I can do and it says "Dig a hole 6 inches deep and buy a gopher probe and probe underground until you find the start of the tunnel. Once you find that stick 2 traps down there." Ya right. Who in there right mind is sticking their hand down a gopher tunnel to set traps. It also said that if there are mounds in your yard they are probably getting ready to nest. So we may have a hole fam damily of gophers soon. I called the maintenance people back and said that they better come out or they wont have much of a yard left. And of course they havn't come out yet. Oh well.
Well I finally gave in and Wayne got an xbox 360 and halo 3 and has spent several nights playing live with some of the old gang. I don't know how they can stay up so late. He went fishing last week and said it was sooooo cold but has never caught so many fish. I'm taking his word on it, I have yet to see pictures. ha ha.
The past 2 weekends have been cold and snowy. The snow doesn't last more than a day and it's only enough for the kids to play for awhile. During the week it's 60-75 and nice. Although the mountains look pretty. The tops are covered in snow and the bottom half is still the fall red and orange colors.
We went to Gardner Village last week. If you havn't been there, they decorate this little village of shops with all these witches and pumpkins and it's fun just to walk through it. The witches scare Brooklynn but Parker and Kendra love to see all of them.
I've put off costumes long enough, I think it's time to go shop for them. They know what they want to be, I just need to do it before all that's left is getting a sheet and putting holes in it for a ghost.
I know most people don't want to think about Christmas yet but if you are coming up to visit we want to do another Christmas party get together like last year, it was fun.
