Happy Father's Day, Kasey!

~ You click on the play button twice to view. The first one takes you to the smilebox website, the second one takes you to his slideshow. ~

Update!

Ok, so 3 full months have gone by since my last post... Ridiculous, I know. Even Christmas was left undone -
A few of my favorite Christmas photos:

Isla waiting "patiently" for Christmas Day :)

My sweet and crazy little Adiee!

Sweet and Sassy Mikenna!

Christmas Eve!

They must've been super good this year! Santa brought Mikenna a new bike, Adiee a kareoke machine, and Isla the storytime Belle doll. Kasey and I bought them a kayak for this upcoming summer. It was a wonderful Christmas, it was just the 5 of us all day. We played with all of our new toys, played games, watched Christmas movies, and Kasey, Mikenna, and Adiee even took the new bike out for a spin. We facetimed with my family since we weren't at the holiday get-together.

Here's everything else the Brown Family has been up to:

January 20th - Mikenna & Adiee performed their dance "I'm a Ballerina Doll" for the varsity girls basketball game half-time show. They looked so beautiful!

The next morning (Jan. 21st), Isla performed her tap dance, "Good Ship Lollipop" for the varsity girls basketball game half-time show. What a cutie patootie!

February 11th - Isla performed her tumbling/trampoline routine for yet another varsity half-time show to, "We Are The Champions".

Her teacher asked me to make matching headpieces for their costumes!

Valentine's Day, Kasey surprised me with a bouquet of pink lillies and a Coach purse! A few weeks before, I had been "casually" (yeah right, hahaha) dropping hints that I would like one, and one night I was browsing some and happened to mention that I had found the one I wanted. I fell asleep with the website still up on my phone and Kasey bought it for me while I was sleeping! The next day when I woke up, the purse was the first thing that came up... I woke Kasey up, "I reeeeeally want this purse!" And he says, "Good! It's on it's way here" and rolled over to keep sleeping. And I went nuts, made him prove it, and his hopes for sleeping in were shot, haha.

February 20th - I had a dermatologist appointment because Kasey had noticed a new spot on my back. The girls and I went to Casper, they stayed with my mom while I went to the doctor. I had 2 suspicious spots on my back. They removed them, and sent them in for a biopsy. Pretty scary stuff, but a few weeks later they called with the results and it turned out to be nothing. Better safe than sorry.

Last weekend in February, we bought a camper. And ever since we got it home, Kasey and I have been working hard at making it our own. He has spray painted all the cabinetry with a cool "rock" textured paint, I have been painting the walls a shade of white. And just a couple days ago we tag-teamed the upholstery, he took all of the covers off the cushions while I washed them and put them back on. So they are nice and clean. I still have to finish painting the walls and I am going to be sanitizing everything once it's done. We are getting excited for camping season now! Pictures to come when it's finished.

The whole month of March was pretty uneventful, just our regular schedules with movie dates and BBQ's with good friends, and a couple parent teacher conferences thrown in (which they are doing fabulous, by the way). That is until the last weekend of the month... Read on to hear about the madness, ha!

March 30th - Adiee Grace turned SIX! I know everybody says it but it is seriously hard to believe that our kiddos are getting so old. I made birthday pancakes for the girls, stuck a candle in them and we all sang to her before Kasey left for work. The girls had dress rehearsals for their recital for 4 hours... Kasey volunteered to tackle that all on his own so that I could go for an impromptu trip to Casper (seriously, what an incredible man/husband/daddy!) While I was in Casper I picked up 2 Nintendo 3DS's (one for Adiee's birthday present, and the other for Mikenna - an early b-day present. She's been wanting one for FOREVER!) I also picked up a new pair of capris. 4 hours, and $600 later, I headed home with my mom. We met Kasey at the rehearsals, ordered a pizza and had Adiee open her gifts from my mom and us. Thanks to my mother, we are now expecting a tadpole in the mail (another flipping pet... oh jeez!) and butterflies when it gets a little warmer. It's ok though, she's really excited (they can't live too long right haha??). When she opened the Nintendo 3DS, she was SO excited, and Mikenna instantly looked devastated asked if Adiee had to share, then started to cry. Kasey took her aside and told her that we had one for her too, that wasn't the plan but he said he couldn't stand to see her like that. We told her she could have it early or wait for her actual birthday, which do you think she picked? Ha :)

March 31st - Dance Recital Day! I was busy preparing for Adiee's birthday party tomorrow - only 4 people RSVP'd so I was stressed about how many were actually going to come. I made about 2 dozen cupcakes and a cake. The cake wasn't turning out how I thought it would, not knowing how many people were coming, wondering if I had enough party supplies, dance recitals that night, blah blah blah... I ended up bawling my eyes out (Pathetic I know! But I'm a perfectionist at heart so if it's not right, then I have a tendency to freak out... Still working on that, ugh!) Then, it was time to get the girls all gussied up to dance the night away. When we got home, we put the kids to bed, made a checklist for the morning, and went to bed ourselves. LONG day.

April 1st - Let's Party! We rented the multi-purpose room and a gym at the rec center to have her party. We went to the store picked up the food and balloons, and my good friend Brittney helped Kasey and I set up the party. What would I have done without them?! Turns out, there weren't very many extra kids, so all that stressing out over supplies and food were unwarranted - why has the courtesy of RSVPing disappeared? We sang to her, watched her open presents, smacked a pinata around, had lunch and desert, and played with balls and on scooters, etc... I knew that weekend was going to be long and hard, once it was over I was so relieved but a week later, I am STILL unwinding from all that stress I felt.

Easter was a fun-filled family day. The girls woke up, found their baskets from the Easter Bunny and didn't touch them until they got Kasey and I out of bed... How good are they?! Well, they tore into those; then Kasey did his station checks since he was on call. I got the table set up for egg dying so we could tackle that as soon as he got home (we usually already have this done, but considering the weekend before... Ha!) We dyed our eggs, then went to the movie, "Mirror, Mirror". After the movie, we stopped by the house to grab their eggs, and went to a park for the egg hunt. So much fun! We headed home for some dinner and put the kiddos to bed. It was a wonderful day. I love my wonderful family!

 Dyeing those eggs!

 Wowsa!

 Found one!

Oh MY!

Our lovely little girls.

Kasey and I are truly blessed.

Holiday Happenings

December 8th - Mikenna and Adiee had their school Christmas Concerts. Noni came to see them sing and spent a few days here with us! The next day, we did those gingerbread houses that I had mentioned earlier with the 2 kiddos I watch every now and then. Don't mind the kitty scratches on Isla's cheek, she won't leave Lucy alone... :) They were in candy heaven as they unwrapped all their leftover halloween candy and decorated their houses! Yes girls, I did see the many pieces that you tried to "sneak".

Our little "elves" hard at work! :)

Tried to make the candy less tempting to eat with royal icing, glitter, and glue. It worked for the most part, except Isla took a big ol' bite of the frosting after I specifically said not to since it was made of raw egg whites and sugar... Ugh!

All finished! What a day!

Back in November, Babbette (the owner/teacher at their dance studio) asked me to make her grand-daughter a bow to match her dress for their Thanksgiving program at preschool. They loved it and so she asked me if I would want to put a basket of bows I've made out on her counter and sell them at her studio!

This is what we threw together and I've already made a couple hundred dollars, selling them super cheap. Thank you Babbette, you are so kind!

December 15 - I went "shopping" downtown with my new friend Sarah, and although it was unsuccessful, all of the 2 shops we visited were closing, it was a lot of fun! We weren't really ready to call it a night, so she came inside to chat for a little while. When we got home, Adiee had thrown up and was asleep, Kasey said that she was VERY worried about not being able to go to school for her class Christmas Party which was also PJ day to reward them of their efforts as a school (K-5th Grade) for bringing in over 1,700 cans of food during their annual food drive. She seemed just fine, so we let her go. I went to Adiee's class party, and Kasey went to Mikenna's! It was awesome that he was able to sneak away from work for a little bit to go so that they both had a parent there - HOW are we going to make it work when Isla's in school?!?! I guess we will just have to wait and see :)

Just a random FYI, this miserable place we call home isn't nearly as awful now that we have met a few family friends! So my days are not as lonely anymore, and are now filled with coffee dates and playdates, family dinners, etc... It's so much more enjoyable here now-a-days!

I made "lumps of coal" for a snack while we watched holiday movies with a few of the girls' friends.

Yummo!

December 18 - We went to Casper to celebrate my grandpa's 70th birthday! My Uncle Victor was able to come down from Salt Lake City and it was so nice to see him! It's been way too long - I just wish the rest of his family could've made it. Miss you guys!! The party was cut short for us though, Kasey had to get back home to be on-call so Mike could go take care of his wife who had an accident a few days before. We also finished up all of our Christmas shopping, YAY!

Days before Christmas, Santa sent each one of our girls an email to let them know if they were nice... or naughty! I should have video taped them watching the videos because Adiee was talking to him through the screen, Isla let him know that she was wearing her bathing suit, and Mikenna was on pins and needles to see if she was going to make the nice list (she had just got busted for throwing her frosted flakes across the table at Adiee - HA!!) Their sighs of relief were just priceless! Thank you portable north pole, those videos were so cute!

Deck The Halls!

I just wanted to share a few highlights of our Christmas Decor (some old, some new) with all of you. I love the way my house looks (so warm and inviting), smells (like apples and cinnamon), and feels (the extra warm gooey lovin' feeling, because let's face it, we have that going on all year long :-) during this season.

The ornament of our very first Christmas together.

Our stockings, a sign welcoming Santa Claus, a phrase that says it all... "Be Jolly" complete with vibrant foil green lettering! And the cookie and milk plate that we set out every year to thank the big guy for his generosity (Thanks Melanie! That set is adorable and I still love it!). :-)

The girls each made a gingerbread house with friends using graham crackers and all of our Halloween candy. Thankfully my mom was visiting when we did these because I think I bit off more than I could chew with me being the only adult with 5 kids... Can you imagine? Haha ;) Among the little gingerbread village are my ornament candlesticks, they are so colorful and make "our spirits bright"!

I love anything sparkly so I snagged this baby up as soon as I saw it! LOVE it!!

A tradition we've been doing for 5 years. I put 3 ornaments in each little door and they decorate the small tree each day up until Christmas. I'm kind of rethinking the 3 ornaments each day because that is 75 ornaments on that little thing. So starting next year, I may put 1 ornament and 2 small treats (hershey kisses?) in each door and they can take turns opening the little doors. It's something they get to look forward to each night before they snuggle into their beds "for long winter naps".

We bought the nutcracker from when I took Mikenna to the Moscow Ballet's: Great Russian Nutcracker back in 2008. We went with Kasey's mom and Windy and Sophie. The other 2 stayed with Kasey - Adiee was only 2 and had no interest in sitting in a seat for a couple of hours and miss Isla was a newborn. My mom bought me that snowflake dish with the star Santa topper, I L-O-V-E it!! As you can see, we have a few candy theives on our hands. And, the handprint Angel is something that stays up year round.

Our tree of course, which is adorned with quite the assortment of ornaments from Kasey and my childhood and ones representing our years together with our children.

I bought Michael Buble's Christmas album, we listened to it while driving around looking at lights and I realized that's what was missing from all of our drives through town, in years' past - the MUSIC (hello!). His music really puts me in the holiday mood like nobody else. Thank you Mr. Buble! :-) And the holidays just wouldn't be the same without curling up to our favorite family movies that I whip out just once a year - Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Elf, Christmas Story, The Original Television Christmas Classics collection (Rudolph, Frosty, etc...), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

It really is a wonderful life.

Thanksgiving 2011

Our family has yet again found ourselves "stuck" here in Rawlins, but I can leave off the "all by our lonesomes" this year. I don't even really know how it happened but all of a sudden we have met FRIENDS in this little town!! Haha :) While most of them had plans, I hosted Thanksgiving Dinner at our house this year for us and another family. While I absolutely adore just us 5, it was definitely nice having company... It made it feel less like just another family dinner but with way too much food, and more like the holiday that it is.

On the menu: Turkey (DUH!), Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Sauce, Yams, Pineapple Stuffing, Broccoli Casserole, Stuffing, Gravies, Mashed Potatoes, and Pumpkin Pie! We cooked, cleaned, feasted, and watched "A Christmas Carol" to kick off the Christmas season before Jen and I headed to Casper for Black Friday. Some would call it a waste of a trip because we didn't get much but who wouldn't want to battle full parking lots and stand in line at Kohls for 3 hours for 3 jewelry boxes and 3 hooded towels?? (I know - RIDICULOUS!) It was all in good fun, and the girls did get to see Noni for a bit and go to a movie. We took a nap before heading out to look around some more at all the stores' bare shelves and just decided to go to lunch instead. I had to turn around twice because we forgot something at my mom's house and then realized, while Jen ran into a store really quick, that I had Scott's truck keys. Luckily they were kind enough to come to me this time! I guess patience is a virtue that I truly do have! Haha :-)

Summer & Fall Update, Part 2

Continued... September 9th - The big girls had a sleepover at their dance studio. It's the first time they have been away from home overnight, besides my mom's house. Isla stayed there for a couple hours while Kasey and I were able to go on a date (a rare commodity these days). They had a blast, and I was told that they were very well behaved. Always a nice thing to hear :)

September 16 - On our way to Kasey's brother Nate's wedding, we got a ROCKIN' camera - a Canon Rebel T2i! We had been talking about investing in one for a while and I had been looking online, comparing features and reviews for one that would fit our family perfectly. I must say I think we did, this was money well spent! I'm so excited to learn how to use it beyond the full-auto mode!! Here's a few pictures that we took with it right out of the box.

Only edit was putting it in a collage with a frame.

Not too shabby for amateur 'photographers', right? Anyways, we took a ton of pictures as we messed with the settings and took a quick crash course on aperature, shutter speed, etc... from Kasey's other brother Kyle.

More messing around with our new toy... :)

Nate and Charlotte got married September 17, 2011. It meant a lot to Kasey that Nate asked him to be his best man! Their wedding was a lot of fun, and we got to visit with many people we don't see often enough. Plus I love any excuse to get dressed up (and Kasey in his tux, wow-oh-wow!! Haha!). Still have no idea how I got so lucky.

Our girls, us, and Kasey's dad and Linda at the wedding.

After the ceremony, we headed to the reception. Kasey gave a toast that had everyone laughing, Nate looked a little nervous about what might come out of his mouth but in the end was happy that nothing too embarrassing was said, haha! :) We all danced the night away, and Adiee even asked one of the "blue princesses" aka bridesmaid wearing a blue dress to dance! It was so sweet!

The girls dancing with their dad. Priceless!!

We stopped by Kasey's other brother Corey's house to say goodbye to everyone and they had a ton of kittens that needed homes. Between that, big-sad-eyed kids, and my own weakness of wanting to "help" anything and everyone - we ended up taking one home even though we have way too many pets to begin with and I knew Kleo (our only cat at the time) would disapprove.

The really pretty one in the middle is the one we took.

She was so little and sweet, she didn't have a name for a while either. It was hard for everyone to come to an agreement. The girls had SO many ideas like Pearl (which I actually did like), Pizza, Ice Cream, Sundae, Bubbles, etc... But we eventually named her Lucy. When we first got home she didn't drink very much, but would eat her soft kitten food, so I bottle fed her for a couple weeks. She has now quadrupled in size since we first got her.

Isla turned 3 on September 30th!! What a doll!

We had a big trip to Build-a-Bear Workshop in Denver planned, but we had to postpone because conflicting schedules at work.

On October 3, the big girls had field trips. Sometimes I think I may be a bit over-protective, I was extremely uncomfortable and a bit hesitant to let Mikenna go on hers because it was a bus trip to the planetarium... IN CASPER, 2 hours away. To be fair, Kasey was just as apprehensive as I was... Yikes! In the end, we let her go but I didn't like it at all. So, Isla and I went to the Fire Station with Adiee and her class to get my mind off of it (didn't really work that way though. Ha!) I was sure glad to pick her up from school that day and see her safe and sound back at home with me.

Checking out the firetruck...

On facebook, I posted that Kasey was playing catch that evening with Mikenna in a pink fairy dress and black high heels with a pink baseball glove and ball...

Here's the proof! Haha!! What a girl!

A few days later, we left for Denver to celebrate Isla's birthday. On the way there, we stopped and had dinner with Polly and Eliana (our old neighbors from when we bought our first house, Eliana is only 3 months older than Mikenna). We had pizza and visited for a little while, they always have a ton of fun when they get together, although it isn't very often anymore with both of us in new towns. When we finally got to the hotel, it was too late to go swimming which was a bummer. Isla was the only one that had any energy at all. We needed the sleep anyway, we had a very full couple days planned! :)

They love hotels! Here they are eating their continental breakfast :)

First up, we went to the Flatiron Crossing mall. While we waited for Brandon, Whitney, and little Harper to get here, we took Isla to get her "ear holes". Haha! She is so stinkin' cute! She has been wanting to get her ears pierced but we have waited until their 3rd birthday for all of them (I couldn't bring myself to do it when they were babies). The big girls got to pick a new pack of earrings, and they kept bringing me things that I didn't approve of so we compromised that they get ones that were age appropriate, then I would let them get 1 pack of the feathers that they originally wanted - for PLAY only.

Isn't that last picture heartbreaking?! She is trying to smile even though it hurt! :( It didn't last long though, she was so happy when it was all said and done.

Next up, Build-a-Bear Workshop!! YAY! :) Let me tell you, that store was complete chaos... and BUSY! The girls were all over the place, 1 is picking out their animal, 1 is already getting clothes and accessories, and 1 is filling their bear. It was so much fun to see them so crazy happy, it was exactly what I was hoping for. I had to eventually put a stop to the madness so I told them to put everything that was in their hands on the counter so I could pay for it while Kasey registered them and got their birth certificates printed.

Finding "The One"! Chaos, I'm telling you!! :)

The girls with their finished product!

It only took 5 hours to get out of there. Maybe I'm being a little sarcastic. Ha!

More shopping, photo strips, and lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was delicious!

Brandon, Whitney, Harper, and our family went to HomeGoods after leaving the mall, then met Kasey's sister Kristy and her family at her house and followed them to Chili's. We stayed the night with them in their beautiful home! It was so good to see everyone again so soon!

She didn't have anymore energy tonight! Haha!

It's Sunday now, but before we go home, we had another exciting day planned. We took the girls to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We bought IMAX tickets to see a 3D film on dinosaurs and Isla tried her hardest to get me kicked out. She was terrified before the movie even started, the opening had 2 dinosaurs playing/fighting then turned to fossils and she just lost it. I gave her to Kasey and he was able to console her. Thank goodness!

 Their main display were the animatronic dinosaurs, but they didn't allow photographing or video taping. Isla did NOT like it. Not one little bit. She was very relieved when we headed over to the "Expedition Health" section. They did all kinds of different activities to learn about their bodies. We also stood in line for a good 20 minutes to do the "What will you look like at age 70" activity and then it compares what you will look like if you take care of yourself to what you will look like if you smoke, have too much UV exposure, etc... All I can say is I should start taking care of my skin the way I do theirs... I am always applying and reapplying sunscreen on them. Yikes! :)

 We ate lunch at the cafe inside the museum and then headed over to the space expo. They really enjoyed it playing in the sand and water and Mikenna got to ask a question to the "astronaut" on the "moon" while she was doing very important work! :)

Last stop before the gift shop, was the mineral and gemstone exhibit. They loved looking at all the different sparkling stones! Mikenna bought a crystal and a geode to display in her bedroom, Adiee picked out a necklace and a pack of play dinosaur fossils, and Isla bought the same necklace (so they can fight over whos is whos, it's really fun. Ha!) and a pack of dinosaurs. After that, I got my long-awaited first IKEA store experience. I think our trip was a SUCCESS!!

October 14 - The girls were in the town's "Outlaw" parade for their dance studio. I made their bows myself!! :)

And afterwards we went to dinner at a friend's house and then the girls went for their second dance sleepover.

Crazy Girls!!

On October 29, we had some friends over, ordered pizza while the kiddos made their own mini pizzas. After dinner, we all carved pumpkins with the little ones. It's so nice to have met another couple with 2 little girls here in town! Every time I see them, I also get my baby fix ;-) since mine are growing up!



Jack-o-Lanterns!!

Adiee was a monarch butterfly, Isla was a 'bat'erina, and Mikenna was a vampire if you couldn't tell. Kasey is responsible for that monstrosity! Here I am painting a beautiful butterfly, an adorable bat, and I look over at what Kasey is doing to our oldest. She seriously will give me nightmares for the rest of the year. Is it bad that I almost didn't post this picture because it's so scary? I didn't realize we were going for 'frightening' this year, I'm going to miss the cute-sy days if this is what I get to look forward to for the rest of our costume days.

And lastly, our friends came over to test out our Wii to see if it would be a good gift for their almost 4 year old. I got the kids together for a small Thanksgiving craft. Adorable!

We wrote a few 'thankful thoughts' on the turkey's wings. Some were obvious - "My Family", "My Sisters", "My Home", "My Toys", etc... And some were not so obvious, like - "Turtles" (?? Haha!), "Prince Charming", "The Color Pink", etc... Those kids are hilarious. Never a dull moment in my house!

Phew!! So that is what our family has been up to over the last 5 months or so. Now that I'm caught up, I will be back to blogging more frequently as I used to since there is less going on in these long winter days.

Thanks for reading!