Yardwork Mayhem...

So we are going to be putting in sprinklers and grass seed this year. YAY! We are SO excited. I wish we could do a fence as well, but that will have to wait. So last summer we convinced my parents everyday of their trip up here to spend every morning helping us weed our back yard. We got it done. THANK YOU PARENTS!! Well we kept on it and had it nice and cleaned out for Winter to lay down all it's snow and cover it up till Spring. Well the snow this year never came. But the weeds sure did. Dang them! So Kevin & I were attempting to re-weed the yard to get it ready for the Sprinkler guys to come. Well by hand was taking WAY too long and you felt like you got nothing done.

So then it was...JAMES BOND to the rescue!!!!
(seriously our friend is named James Bond. Super nice Family)

He let us borrow his (his parents) Tiller.
That was was a LIFE SAVER!!

So...here is Our Day's work in photos....

STARTING OUT...

LUNCHTIME BREAK....

FINISHED!
(well Tilling...we need to still rake)

Thanks again Bond's for letting us use the Tiller!

We sure are feeling the physical exhaustion & pain from all that work.
Not to mention the Sun exhaustion!
But it will be totally worth it!

too cool

I couldn't find my usual sunglasses this morning so i pulled these BEAUTIES out of the back of my drawer. Takes me back to the early/mid 90s.

Don't i look SO cool?!?!

newest nephew

Straight from Heaven this morning.

Our newest nephew...

Emmitt Arnold Brown

I think he might be a good mix of his brothers. Mostly like Karter, but the dark hair (under the hat) like Karson did when he was born. He is precious.

Congrats Jeff & Barbara

beautiful color

Kevin's Ankle.

Isn't that color Beautiful?!

I think it's time to retire from Basketball!

yummy in our grass

Apparently there was something yummy in our grass
at lunch time yesterday.

craftiness continues...

I think having crafty friends makes me want to be crafty.

My friend Emily helped me make a car seat cover for my SIL Shauna for my nephew Thomas. Well i've kept that knowledge somewhere in the back of my mind and have brought it forth to make one for my SIL Barbara for my newest nephew (to be born April 13th).

I am SO proud of myself because i did it all by myself! I am not a sewer at all and i was petrified to do Shauna's and had Emily do the majority of it. So this time doing it all on my own is quite the accomplishment.

so here you go....

I love how it turned out.
Kevin said if Barbara doesn't like it we'll keep it. ;)

more creativity this weekend

Apparently my creativity knew no bounds this weekend. LOL.

So a few weeks ago i found this awesome (so i think) watch.
I knew that i wanted one.

So my friend Sarah B. and i have been talking about it and there is a girl she goes to church with that makes them. Sarah was thinking we could also some how make the watch bands interchangeable. So i was super jazzed about it. So jazzed about it that I've been doing ALOT of internet researching to find things possibly cheaper on line. Then i showed the pic to my friend Laruen and she's like..."we can easily do that and make it interchangeable."

So off to Micheal's Craft store we went.

So....here is my newest watch i made this weekend.
LOVE IT!!!!

It's alot more difficult to photo graph your own arm
with a big massive camera then i thought it should be.
oh well. you get the point.
i love it.

I threw a party!

I am not one to throw parties...
but i really wanted to make these so i took it upon myself and did it!
It was a success! I think people had a really good time.

These are mine i made last night.
Thanks ladies for coming and crafting with me!
If anyone wants to book a party HERE is how to contact Ashley.
I'd totally come to your party!

not dead yet

My MIL gave me a little start off her African Violet plant. It wasn't thriving at home since it doesn't get alot of light so i brought it to my office. I think it likes it here.

A pic that Jackie took

I was painting one day and Jackie took this pic. So I high-jacked her blog and posted it here. Kevin

Phone Photos

Kevin downloaded some photos off my phone.

Karson with Santa at our Ward Christmas party 09.
We were watching the boys for J&B since they were at a work party.
Karson was very curious and weary of Santa.
Kevin got him to sit with him.

Kevin cleaning our ward bldg last summer.
Thought that vacuum was awesome.
Tho apparently very warm!

Karter & Karson with the snowman in Jan 2010.
It was more of an ICEman by then.
They tried to put the carrot back in for the nose.
He fell over...

Kevin trying to 'fix' the Iceman.
It didn't work.

but according to Karson..."have mommy fix it, she can do it."
Barbara must be super woman.

Videos

So this past Sunday we went out to visit Kevin's parents. Keith & Tisa brought over snowboarding on the Wii. I've never snowboarded so it was interesting figuring it out on the Wii Fit board. But anyway...My in-laws square dance and my MIL does the whole puffy skirt thing. Well i found one in the other room and put it on. They dared me to be wear it while snowboarding and said if i do better then them they have to where it on their next turn. I'm glad Kevin remembered we can record on our phones.

Jackie

Keith


Kevin

New Art

Thanks to my nephew Sam i have some beautiful new artwork in my office.

THANKS SAMMY!!
I love it!

mice update

We haven't found ANY more mice (or poop) in the garage since we killed those two. So hopefully that's all there was. We also blocked the entrance to the garage we believe the mice were using. So hopefully that's the end of them for a LONG TIME!

houses updates

So we went to the locate callege here (CSI - College of Southern Idaho) for a Home and Garden Show. I was reminiscing that if my parents had dragged me to this i would have been complaining the whole time. And here i was some 20 years later and SO excited to go and see what they had to offer. We signed up for some free quotes on sprinklers and rain gutters and asked alot about sheds, since we want to continue to park in the garage and slowly the lawn/yard care items are taking over. They also have some other venders for things, such as scentsy items, hand made crafts etc... One of our favorites was one called "Bistro Blends". More on that in a moment.

Yesterday i got the call from the rain gutter guy saying he happened to be in town and asked if we could meet. i said yes i can be there in 10 mins. So i hurried home to meet him. I got my boots on cause it's all mud and melting snow in the back yard and so he was telling me what he could do to fix our "lack of rain gutter" problem and he noticed a few things we hadn't seen since we haven't been out back much...seeing how it's winter! Our "addition" on the porch that builder put in cause they screwed up the original porch is "settling" so it's slanting ever so slightly. Also a BIG piece of siding had "popped out". WHAT THE CRAP?! So as soon as Kirby gave me the quote i ran inside to find our builders # to get ahold of the siding guy. They "sent him a message". So pretty much if i don't hear from him my noon today I'm calling his butt every 30 mins. :) Cause I'm mean like that.

Also we've had the JOY of dealing with MICE in the garage. Thankfully not in the house. yuck! But last night we found how the mice were getting in, so we are fixing that tonight/tomorrow since it's pay day today! WOOT WOOT! I really hate getting paid just once a month.

So back to the BISTRO BLENDS (click their name for their website). They totally sucked us into their booth. We were going to stop anyway, we love tasting things. But i bet we ate half a loaf of bread between the two of us just tasting all there was. Of course we bought some cause we are suckers like that. But it's TOTALLY worth it. YUMMY!! We bought a little 4 pack of Vinaigrette/Marinade/Bread Dip (2-Basil Garlic Parmesan, 1-Thai Sesame Ginger & 1-Rosemary Roasted Garlic Cabernet) and one bottle of Barbecue/Grill sauce (1-Honey Ginger Teriyaki). I can't wait to use them! I think we might have found some Christmas Presents for this year. :)

photo booth

Thought this was pretty funny.
So i thought share.
Nothing too exciting with us right now.
Sorry no updates lately.

shout out

So i have found a new store that i LOVE.

I just need to practice at becoming 'more crafty'.

I have a lot of friends that can show me the way.

I took Lauren with me to check it out (again) today.
Sorry James. ;)

Whenever you want to come visit me I'll take you out there.

There is ALOT of cute cute cute material & patterns there!

THE QUILT BARN

doctor update

went to see Dr. Aaron Brown yesterday. I really like him & not just because of his last name. He checked out my knee; had me go get an X-ray make sure there wasn't a little bone that got fractured off causing the 'catching' feeling i have in my knee.

X-ray showed a Normal knee.

So we are currently running with the it's strained idea. If it's not better in a few weeks then we will do an MRI. I hoping we don't have to go that far. He gave me a brace and some exercises to do. the brace did help yesterday with the few errands we did. He did give me some strong pain meds for when i sleep and they totally knocked me out last night. I slept like 12 hrs. which was lovely. Feels pretty good this morning...tho i haven't really been up and about much seeing how i just got up about 15 mins ago. :)

finally home...

We got home last night about 1130pm-ish.

It's so LOVELY to be home.

Now off to the doctors in a few hours to get my knee looked at.
(i hurt it at the vball tourny on Saturday)

busy week

this week is turning into a very busy week/end.

Sick Monday
Got the muffler fixed on the car Tuesday
Wednesday work lunch - that's just enjoyable
Thursday bake cupcakes for a funeral luncheon (for Friday)
Friday have hair appt & last rec league vball game
Saturday all day vball tournament at CSI
Sunday nephews baby blessing in Utah
Monday morning 4am leave for Boise airport for work trip in CA (central).

Trip to the big city...

...of BOISE!

A few plans got canceled yesterday morning and so we decided to get out of town and head to Boise. It was SO nice to get out of town for a few hours. We enjoyed it.

First stop was the Nike outlet store
to see if they had some shoes for Kevin...

& we found some...YAY!
(Hard to find good fitting 14's that Kevin actually likes the look of them)

Then we went to the mall and looked around, then went at got some
dinner at one of my FAVORITE places....

Then walked around the store Cost Plus World Market.
Forgot about some of the cool stuff they have there.

Then I wanted to hit the Kitchen Store in the Boise outlets.
I LOVE kitchen gadgets!
And we found two little gems we walked out with...

Hand held cheese grater
(Kevin been really big into the 'real' Parmesan cheese)

And an apple core-er, slicer, peeler thing!


I'm very excited for this!!
Kevin's mom has one & it's wicked awesome!

puzzle

For three weeks a puzzle has been on our dining room table. We've had the puzzle for a few years and have never done it, so Kevin decided to finally break it out. It was pretty dang hard, but we are glad to say we finally finished it tonight. YAY!!!

Surprise in the mail...

HOW COOL ARE THESE?!

THANKS Eric, Ro & Boys!!!

cruising back to 2007...

So Philip did a slide show of the HISTORY OF PDP (Progressive Dairy Publishing) at work the other day and he had some pictures from a dinner cruise the company went on back in 2007. So i had him find me the pictures cause i liked one he had used of Kevin & I.

So a little back history...

Kevin & I were living in Rexburg very happily and we had just bought (had built for us) a townhouse that was darling! We were so excited about it. Well we moved into that lovely home end of May beginning of June. Then a few weeks later the crushing news that Kevin was being let go from the company he was working at. We weren't too surprised the business wasn't doing great, but we wanted to leave on our terms. Thankfully they gave Kevin 2 weeks notice to find a new job. We were EXTREMLY blessed that he was technically only out of a job for 2 weeks! Unfortunately the new job made us move about 3 hrs to the west. But then again blessed to sell our townhouse very quickly (and even made some money on it). Tho Kevin had to start his job in August of 2007...and i didn't make it out here until the 2nd-3rd Nov 2007. It was thru the generosity of Kevin's brother Jeff to let Kevin live with them that whole time! It was hard on all of us, but so thankful how it all worked out.

Well, Kevin worked for PDP for about 5 weeks when they had this cool Company dinner cruise. It was a cruise down the Snake River checking out all the natural springs/water falls that are throughout that section of the canyon. It was really cool and pretty good food from what i remember. This was also the first time of meeting ALL of Kevin's co-workers. I was quite nervous. Thankfully my now good friend Emily and I had been emailing since Kevin started working there. She wanted to make sure i knew someone when i made the move out, which was very cool of her.

Anywhos...here are some pics.

Loading onto the boat.

Us with Ray & Emily waiting to leave the dock.

Some houses down in the canyon.
How cool would that be to live there?!

One of the falls.

Lastly...Kevin & I.

Kevin's Kitchen Creation

So last weekend Kevin was hungry for some lunch and didn't know what to have. So he went scavenging in our fridge and cabinets. He found things and came up with this yummy creation.



They were SO yummy. We called the Black Bean Pot Stickers. The pile of beans next to them is what is actually inside the 'pot stickers' themselves. I had it write up what he used, he totally had to guess at the measurements cause he just threw in what he thought looked/tasted good.

Black Bean Filling for Pot Stickers

1 can black beans drained
Minced onion 1/2 to 1 cup depending on how much you like
2 cloves of garlic minced
fresh or powdered ginger to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
tablespoon of sesame seeds
tablespoon of soy sauce
Sesame or Olive oil
Won Ton wraps

Cook the onions, garlic and ginger in oil until the onions are translucent. Add the can of beans, lemon juice, sesame seeds and soy sauce. Cooked till heated thru.

Place a spoonful in your favorite won ton wraps, pinch closed, cook and serve.

* we fried them, but on the package of won ton wraps all the recipes it provided were supposed to be bake in the oven. we may try that next time to see the difference.

Halloween in January

So these are WAY LATE. But we wanted to take pics of them and i don't know what happened to all the pics that were taken at our Ward Christmas Party. We wanted to clean some boxes out of the garage yesterday and these were two that needed to go.

These were our costumes for Halloween 2009.

We're LEGOS!

what a waste...

... of my 'home' time.

Yesterday was an especially long day and i was really tired when i got home from working-out, then to work for 8hrs with no lunch, then running over to Twin for my eye exam and then home. I was gone for 12 hrs yesterday. And what did i want to do when i got home?? NOTHING. And that's exactly what i did! i made a quick easy dinner for myself since Kevin wasn't hungry and then i seriously sat in the bean bag from 5:30pm till dragging myself to bed at 11pm.

What a WASTE of time!

And the only time i am "home" during the day. Sleeping doesn't count. I could have done alot during that time. Granted...this does not happen often...but still. i could have at least done the dishes. But nope...now i need to do them this morning. ugh.

Somethings gotta change. I have many a projects i could be working on.

Maiden Voyage

For Christmas this year Kevin's parents bought Kevin a ladder! It's a very nice ladder. We were able to borrow the work ladder when needed but it wasn't always convenient or available. Kevin was super excited. For a few days following Christmas every time we'd pull into the garage Kevin would say "hey look babe we've got a ladder". So thank you Doug & Linda!

Kevin busted out the ladder this morning to take down our outside Christmas lights. The last thing of decorations that needed to be taken down. Thankfully this morning was tons warmer then the past two mornings where it's been 7 degrees with a windchill of Neg 13. This morning it was at least 27, with little to no breeze. Very nice.

Alas...its the Maiden Voyage of the Brown Family Ladder.

ROAD TRIP!

(Not quite a So Cal Beach)

I am SO excited to say...

WE ARE GOING TO CALIFORNIA THIS SUMMER!!!

We just got the OK from our bosses.

Nothing like having a goal to get you motivated to the gym!
(Brown Family pics and So Cal beach time)

Merry Christmas

I don't have a cute family letter or even a family photo.

But i do have a funny video for you.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

so tempting...

so as we drove to work this morning. We passed by a Maverick gas station and has a big sign outside stating the Power ball lotto is up to like $92 million. We could do a lot of good for people with that kind of money. So tempted to play.

Is it bad to pray to win money?!

Gingy

So today at work is our Christmas Party Luncheon.

Along with that we are doing a Gingerbread Man decorating contest.

Natalie was SO kind and cut out probably 35 of these...

Here is Kevin's Design...can you guess it?

And finally mine. It just makes me smile.
And Yes she has on a bikini-bottom under her grass skirt.


** UPDATED **
Kevin WON 1st Place!!!

Good Crap!

So as winter hits and we aren't using yard equipment (mower, dirt shovels, wheelbarrow, etc..) it drives me crazy having them take up room in the garage.

We always say:
"We need a shed to put all this in."

So I look up Home Depot & Lowes and search for sheds.

GOOD CRAP!!!

Have you seen the prices of these things?!?
It's just a freaking Shed!
I could not believe it.

Well, I guess we won't be getting one of those anytime soon. *sigh*

Christmas Cards?

Every year i debate...

Should we do cards?

Not do cards?

I feel like if we don't then people won't send me there's.

It's like trading.

If one always gives and the other doesn't....then they won't want to 'play' with them anymore.

Oh, i don't know.

We're aren't very exciting.
No news to share.

Probably you'll just have to check back here for a Christmas picture.

There is always next year...which i hope & pray we'll have news.
Only the Lord knows if we will...cause obviously i have no say or control over it.

updated

Well i should say the Background is at least updated to match the current holiday.

I guess i really don't feel like there is alot to talk about. And no pictures to post. It's getting really cold now. It's currently 28 degrees at 530pm. No snow tho. :( I wish we would get alot this winter. But i don't know, it's hard to say what it's going to be like. I just can't wait to try snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing...as well as tubing again.

No yard work to complain about. Just hope the bulbs we planted will sprout in the spring. We have just been working and keeping busy. We got the house all decorated for Christmas, but we still need to get a tree. Probably something we will do this weekend.

I've just been hitting the gym alot and hoping that it will all workout that i will loose weight this holiday season and not gain it from all the yummy treats.

We were able to head to SLC this Thanksgiving weekend. We spent the actual day of Thanksgiving at Kevin's parents house. Which was really low key and nice. Then Friday we headed for UT. We planned on hitting In-n-Out as our first stop in Draper...but the line was crazy and we were starving...so we passed it up for my second favorite...Panda Express. LOVE IT! We need one closer than Boise! We are so excited that In-n-out is now in "upper utah" not just in St George.

We then hung out with (and stayed with) our bestest friends from CA, Chris & Sarah. Their boys were waiting very impatiently for us to arrive...so they can play with Kevin's star wars legos that he was bring down. Max & Sam had to show us the Death Star lego set that they'd would LOVE to have on the internet. Kevin was drooling over it too!

Sarah and i hit the movies Friday night to see 'New Moon'. LOVED IT! Can't wait to go see it again. Any takers on going with me?

Saturday we chilled and ran errands with Chris & Sarah, then Kevin & I met up with his family to attend my sister-in-law's choir performance. Which was really good! They sang at the Tabernacle in SLC. Then we saw the lights at Temple Square. They always do such a great job. Then went to Applebees for dinner...DO NOT eat at the Applebees in Midvale UT. Horrible service, bad food (on Kevin's meal) and they have charged us MULTIPLE times for the same meal. We are not happy with them!

Sunday we then went to brunch with my old roommate Cat. It was SO good to see her. And the food was yummy. We then headed up to Syracuse to see my Ostler family up there. We walked around the Layton Mall for a little bit. We got our 2009 Christmas ornament. Then headed to my Aunt & Uncle's place. It was SO FUN to hang with them. Of course we got totally spoiled there with yummy food, good company, and left with a few extra surprises. One i will hopefully post about on Saturday...so stay tuned!

Then it was back to reality of work, bills, laundry and setting up for Christmas. it's been a busy but fast week so far.

Looking forward to volleyball on Thursday & Friday as well as dinner with my Cousin Greg on Friday night. He is a cool guy!