Randomness

I know what you're thinking! I know my family is random, but that's not what I meant. How rude! :)
Four posts about Christmas is probably excessive, but I thought I'd better do one more blog to include the Chris-Erica-and-Cindy-dancing-like-elves link and the hairstyles-by-Tricia-glamour shots and the three-puzzles-in-one-week picture and the sledding-in-the-street video and making-cupcakes-for-boys-with-a-serious-sweet-tooth and.... You get the idea. Enjoy!
Erica showed us this website through Office Max where you upload pictures and they'll make them dance disco or a barn dance. It's hillarious and she had all ready uploaded pictures of all her fam and even one of Bisley (their labradoodle). Talk about a hoot. Here's a link so you can see Erica, Chris and I busting out a move. :)

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/tR0waCITDfOrbBXN

Tricia cut and styled Alex's hair this visit so she styled Ian's hair too. Both of them ignored her while she was working product through their hair and fussing with it, but about twenty minutes later Ian scratched his head and realized that something was different. :)
I bought a 1000 piece puzzle for Christmas day. What's a 1000 pieces to pros like us?! You can't really tell since we're on a roll here, but my sore and frozen bottom can attest to the fact that 1000 pieces might have been a bit much. :)
We were thrilled when one of mom and dad's friends gave them a really beautiful blue angel puzzle with only 500 pieces for Christmas. Too bad that blue really was the only color in the puzzle. We had light blue and baby blue (apparently, they're different), bright blue and muted blue, grey blue and cloud blue. It was seriously one of the hardest puzzles ever. So, we were really thrilled with Chris's colorful 1000 piece puzzle she bought for New Years; afterall, what's a 1000 pieces to pros like us?!

We had plenty of snow this Christmas but it was hard to get a day where it was over thirty degrees, so we didn't stay out for long.
Check out these SWEET videos of Tricia as she "forges" a sledding path...

and if you listen carefully you can hear Alex giggle and tell us "again" after his first experience on the hill...

The boys got a cupcake maker for Christmas. It was pink and bakes cupcakes for thirty seconds in the microwave (that can't taste good!) so you can just guess how much the boys dug it and Trevor hated it :). Awww. Christmas!

Alex's camera

I think I've mentioned before how very much Alex loves to take pictures. Remember my visit in November when I went on a walk with them? We made it 100 yards down the street and back and Alex (and a tiny bit Ian) had taken over a hundred pictures. So how excited was Alex when he got a camera from Fisher Price for Christmas?
372-pictures-in-two-days excited:).

Everyone played around with the camera a little since it had some fun features, but I've included only my favorite pictures that Ian and Alex would have taken.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning I woke up to people talking upstairs. Afraid that I missed something, I rushed up the stairs... well, as much as I "rush" at 6:30 am in the morning :). Trevor and Erica were so excited for Christmas morning they couldn't sleep. Apparently, neither could Alex, who woke up Ian, so we woke up Dad and away we went!

There was quite a bit of truly wonderful, hilarious, and spot on presents that I thought I'd share.

The gift of laughter...Six DVDs of the Carol Burnett show from the family.

The gift of childhood...High School Musical cereal from Chris.

The gift of Memories...

A digital camera from his parents (We took three hundred pictures on his camera this weekend!)

The gift of family...

A binder full of family history and life stories of both the Brown and Mackley families from Cindy.

The gift of "amazing"-ness...Actually, Ian said that his Indiana Jones figurines were "the most amazing of my life," but Mr. Drama King gave us good reactions for all of his presents. This is the Leapster from his parents.

The gift of preparation...

A nerf gun from Alex and Ian which we all had a turn at with varying results.

The rest of the day we just spent chillin' and getting to know our presents :).

I'd have to agree with Ian, this Christmas was the most amazing of my life. :)

Eight little reindeer

You may know them as Dasher and Dancer, etc. but let me introduce you to this year's reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. Sing with me now...

You know Ian,

and Chris, and

Trevor,

and Grandpa.

Erica,

and Trish, and

Alex,

and Grandma.

Some reindeer are short and others tall.

One things for sure, we all had a ball!

Merry Christmas!!!

Brown Family Christmas Party- Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our Brown Family Christmas Party! If you missed Part 1, you can read about it here as we journeyed over the mountains and through the woods to Brad's house. :) Christmas Eve was spent at Mom and Dad's house in Burley,
Where we carried on the tradition of an evening filled with tons of food, silly skits, and hilarity that is the Annual Brown Family Christmas party.

We started off with readers/ singers theater Nativity. We each read a scripture from the Christmas Story to share and then sing the corresponding Christmas carol.

Then we ended with this great scripture...

Doctrine & Covenants 76:40-42
And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us—
That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;
That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him;

and sing "I Wonder When He Comes Again", a Children's Song that is special to the family.

Our first skit was by Cindy and Chris lip synching to "Donde Esta Santa Claus". For those that missed it, here are the pics... (P.S. Chris is the head and feet, and I'm the arms).

(Opps! I got the hat a little too low if she has to "out of the window I'm peeping'" through the brim!)

(Chris fixing her hat!)

That delightful skit was followed by Ian singing Jingle Bells. As per Daniel's request (sorry, I've been typing legalize all day at work), I've included some video with much better sound and video than my cell phone. :) Introducing Ian...

Chris and Lisa were never able to perform their Miss Harmony skit this year (they were together at Erica's, but I had their costumes at Brad's), so they figured they'll save it for next year. Since Chris had to go solo this year, here she is singing, "I'll have a Blue Christmas Without You"...

And typical of a Brown Family Christmas Party we ended with a stellar appearance of Sweet Angie the Christmas Tree Angel. How awesome is this that we got two angels in one year?! Take it away Angie!...

(Wow! Sweet Angie's still got it!)

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Snow day

Last Friday was the last day of school before Christmas break and they canceled school for a snow day. Now, granted, we did get some snow and some wind, but I think it's just an excuse to get one more day of vacation while the rest of the working schmucks in the world still have to go to work. :) That means that Mom and Dad and Tricia and Chris were all at home sleeping or puttering or watching TV. sigh. Life is hard. We were suppose to get the storm of the century this weekend and I'm SO glad that I didn't need to go anywhere, so I was just ready to say, let it snow! let it snow! let it snow!

What I think is so funny is that they called Friday a snow day. pffftt. You should see the snow we got Sunday night! Here, I'll show you... I took pictures. Shocker, I know :).

Here's my car at work.

And here's my boss clearing the parking lot.

Crazy right? When I woke up this morning, Chris had already brushed off my car and was clearing a spot behind my car so I could pull out. How nice is that?! The snow on the road in our little circle is very deep but very heavy so but I only got stuck once and I was able to pull onto where I had already driven and then get some traction.

Luckily the building owner beat me to work and he shoveled all the walks this morning.

I spoke to Tricia this morning and she said that mom and dad's house looks really beautiful with the trees heavy with snow and the Christmas lights on the house and the bushes blanketed and gleaming through the snow. Gleaming. Honestly gleaming. How cool is that?!

I was chatting with Chris and she said that she had taken a picture and sent it to Lisa and I know that I sent one to Lisa and I think Tricia said that she sent one to Lisa as well. Apparently, it was big news here. Speaking of big news, one of our neighbors used his construction gear to clear out the cul-de-sac and piled all the snow in one giant heap. This is a pic Chris texted me... check it out!

I hate that people have to travel at this time of year but it's pretty special that we're going to finally have a white Christmas. :)