The Nursery so far...

looks like this :) I have made a little bit of backwards progress. I started with a fully-finished nursery, then slowly starting moving backwards. I sold my rocking chair... wanted a recliner (which I have yet to cover)... sold my crib... and my changing table... and my curtains... took everything off of the walls... and now everything is in a pile in the middle of the room... I have ideas, though :) I have bedding that looks like this (sorry, small photo :)... a white crib and changing table on order...

I am going to do paneling that looks like this (thanks to Natalie for the idea, I stole your photo :)... Matt has to find time to do it...

... and that's as far as I have gotten. For now, it looks like this baby may come home to a nursery with a pile in the middle of it, but it will be done someday, and hopefully be stinkin' cute! Wish me luck!

McKinley Ballet and a Game Night with friends

McKinley started ballet again this year, she took a break for a year, but totally missed it. She is so excited to dance with her friends Julia, Lily, and Hannah. This was the best photo we could manage after class, the girls were a little excited! Notice McKinley's pose? Such a girly girl!

Thanks to the Parks for hosting a fun game-night! We played Band Hero (although it sounded more like a bad Karaoke Bar), it was a blast! Matt rocked it on the guitar :)

Bobbi and Matt rocking out!

My kids love that I am always trying to ruin their fun by taking a picture :)

1/6/2010-1/8/2010

St. George for the New Year

Happy New Year! Yes, this is at midnight, my kids are party animals! :)

And SO wide awake!

Mason finally crashed around 1:30, after hours of Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, and other such fun at Lisa's house in St. George.

Hiking in St. George on New Year's Day - McKinley and Mason LOVE Uncle Greg!

Best buds - seriously! They could not live without each other!

Yes, she thinks she is 14, and she has the attitude for it!

The Brown family - can't wait for this baby to get here!

Grandma and Grandpa Brown with some of the grandkids

A trip to St. George wouldn't be complete without some climbing. Yeah, bringing sexy back :)

My neice Amanda climbing - way to go! Uncle Greggie climbing - unfortunately we didn't have climbing shoes that fit him, so he couldn't get too far in his hiking boots :)

Day 2 of Climbing - the kids love hanging around and watching everyone else climb while they play on the rocks

Eatin' snacks and playing in the dirt, what could be better? :)

The kids love Uncle Greg's motorcycle/scooter, they beg for rides on it!

Another hike to see some petroglyphs (probably didn't spell that right :)

It was so nice to escape to some WARM weather for the weekend, and of course to hang out with the fam! Happy New Year!

1/1/2010-1/3/2010

Christmas!

We LOVE our Christmas Eve tradition of going to Lisa's and spending time with the family! Mason helping me crush candy canes to make peppermint cookies - yum!

Grandma and Grandpa with the kiddos

Mason, McKinley, and Josh anxiously awaiting the traditional pajama-opening Tyler, Jenna, Maddie, Andrew, and Stephen can't wait to see what kind of pj's they got this year :)

Oh the excitement :)

Aw, cute! I love jammies!
At this point my camera battery died, so I will someday have to get a disc from my sister-in-law of the rest of the night's festivities, but as always it was so much fun!

Now, I am the worst at taking pictures on Christmas Day, so here are the few that I have :)

The kiddos rolling out of bed at 9 am - we are always awake before them on Christmas, they are late sleepers (lucky us!)

The kids in front of some of Mason's presents (Santa delivered on Mason's Geo-Trax train that he asked for)

And ALL McKinley wanted for Christmas was a Hannah Montana wig :), so Santa delivered on that one too, along with a Hannah Montana costume and singing Barbie! Such a little diva! :)

And that's all for Chrismtas pictures, sadly. It was a fun day, we enjoyed our gifts, went to the movies with the Bowen's to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, then back home for more playing with the new toys. All-in-all it was a great Christmas!

12/24-12/25/2009

The Final Wedding of the Year :)

This year we were blessed to have 3 family weddings. First my lovely sister, then my darling neice, and last but not lease, Matt's wonderful sister Aimee! It was such a beautiful day, and we are so happy for Aimee and David! The Bride and Groom

Is that a happy girl or what?!?

I LOVED the colors against the winter background, so beautiful!

Aimee and David and their new little family - David has 4 darling kids whom Aimee adores!

McKinley with Aunt Aimee

Bad lighting :), but this child LOVES weddings!

Mason and Tyler :) - my kids LOVE hanging out with their cousins, they are so much fun!

The beautiful details

McKinley and her cousin Jenna

The Brown family with the newly-married Mrs. Higley (no more Brown for her!)

Matt with his cute mom :)

Sure do love this little guy!

McKinley is OBSESSED with flowers, she LOVED getting to take home one of the centerpieces!

Matt teasing his sister about the 'wedding night' ;) Little brothers never change :)

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Higley! We love you guys!

12/18/2009

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's

My kids LOVE hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Brown. And what's not to love? Grandma and Grandpa always have some cool old collection to show the kids, they read them stories, send them stickers and cards in the mail (their FAVORITE thing!), give them animal crackers (the circus kind, in their OWN boxes :), and tell them just how wonderful and loved they are. So, yeah, they pretty much LOVE everything about Grandma and Grandpa. I ran across these pictures and had to document how special Grandma and Grandpa are to McKinley and Mason (and Matt and I, too!) Mason and McKinley looking at Grandma's Santa collection with her. She EVEN let the touch them, but only one at a time so they wouldn't get broken.

Grandpa reading Mason a baseball book

Grandma reading The Gingerbread Man to McKinley. Grandma made up her own ending where the Gingerbread Man gets away safely. McKinley has heard that story before and said that the wolf was supposed to eat him. Grandma thought her ending was a little nicer - I agree :).

12/17/2009

McKinley, Mason, and Grandma after Andrew's farewell (that I have no pictures of... oops!)
The famous animal crackers that Grandma Brown always gives them when they see her - they LOVE them!

1/10/2010