Adiee is Reading!

It's no secret that I'm not impressed with the curriculum at RES. I do not agree with the guided reading approach - at. all. Adiee excelled in math, but has somewhat struggled with reading (not with the short stories that she would bring home from school, but with everyday books from home or the library) and it was extremely frustrating to her. Anyway, {in addition to our normal reading times} Mikenna and Adiee have been reading together for quiet time everyday since school got out and as soon as Kasey came home from work last Monday (6/11) she brought "The Berenstain's B Book" out wanting to read to him. As soon as she started, you could tell it was a book that she has heard many times and she was planning on reciting it from memory... Well until she realized that it was harder than she thought to remember 26 pages verbatim so Kasey had her sound out and actually READ the entire book. The fact that she could was very encouraging to her and she has been a lot more motivated to try other books as well. This is just the tip of the iceberg, she will be reading chapter books before we know it! ;-)

SLC 2012

Kasey will be on-call at work beginning June 14th {our anniversary} through the middle of July... Obviously, we are not too thrilled about this. This means that we won't be able to go anywhere for our anniversary, Mikenna's birthday, 4th of July {my brother will be home (2 hours away) from DC}, and to top it all off - Kasey's 10-year high school reunion in Oregon. Bummer.

On the upside, we were able to get out of town for a few days before our month-long lockdown. We ran the idea by our wonderful friends, the Santiago's {our families have become very close, we both have 3 girls close to the same ages and they live right next to us!} to see if they might want to join us for a few days of fun at Lagoon and the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. Since they did decide to come and a full itinerary, we were unable to visit the many family members we have there... Sorry guys, next time!

We left after the husbands got off work on Thursday evening and arrived at the hotel around 11:30 pm. We got conjoining rooms so we could all hang out before and after our planned activities. Brittney and I weren't tired for some reason so we decided to go try to find a store to buy healthy lunches for Lagoon. Neither one of us wanted to feed our families greasy fair food as a meal. That was quite the adventure - Super Target was closed, we found another market that was closed, the tomtom led us to an alley and said that we had reached walmart {um, no!}, so we had to follow a map on my iPhone which was fun... We had managed to make a huge circle around it, only to find out it was just a quick trip on the interstate at the next exit! We had fun though laughing for the 2 hours it took! Then we had to quietly put everything away in the fridge without waking up our kids and husbands - not easy when you can't stop giggling at every crinkle and crunch as well as eachother. Friday morning, we went down to the continental breakfast only to find out they shut it down at 9... It was 9:15! So we had breakfast together at IHOP, then headed to Lagoon.

Just a few highlights...

This was Adiee getting prepped for the skycoaster. You know, when you pay an extra $30 for them to scare the pants off of you... I was worried about Adiee on this one. She occasionally has a fear of heights, but wanted to do this with her dad.

 She was SO excited! What a wierdo, this ride is absolutely terrifying if you ask me.

 NO fear!

Look at those baby blues! She is such a gorgeous little girl!

 No turning back!

"This must be what a bird sees." Adiee said this to Kasey as they are climbing to the top...

How sweet and innocent is that?!

They LOVED every second of it. Brave girl!

I was very nervous about what her reaction was going to be.

The girls in their coordinating ladybug/polka dot outfits.

So cute!

Isla enjoying her dip n dots :)

Mikenna and I are about to go on the Catapult, another X-treme ride. I really like this one!

She's so excited! Last year she did the swing and Adiee did this one with me.

Loved it!

Sweet Isla riding the helicopters!

Saturday we planned to go to the zoo. We had breakfast and finished getting ready. This day was a little more hectic, then we found out the zoo was about an HOUR away... We took the scenic route and drove through downtown SLC. Of all the times I've been there, I don't think I have ever been downtown. By the time we got there it was already around noon. Zoo parking was ridiculous, so Kasey and I opted to just pay for parking so we didn't have to keep trolling the lot for someone to leave. The weather wasn't as nice this day, an occasional chilly gust of wind really put a damper on the day from the get-go.

Our 3 beautiful babies!

Our 3 little "chick-a-dees" :)

Checking out the seals...

Mikenna played photographer with my phone :) Made me nervous a few times, could you imagine her dropping it in the water or in an animals cage?! That thing was expensive!

This picture was taken right after what was probably the worst moment of my life - Adiee got separated from our group. Kasey, Schnihder, and I all went running in different directons while Brittney stayed with the kids. I was running around looking for her and I physically couldn't scream her name, except once. I couldn't believe that it was happening, it didn't seem real at all. I don't think a minute had passed when I saw Adiee walking towards and talking with a zoo worker, she was calm but started crying when she saw Schnihder and I running towards her in opposite directions. I squeezed her and just started sobbing. I felt like such a horrible mom, and I held her hand while we walked back to where our group was. Kasey had to talk me through a full-blown panic attack - something I have never experienced before. I physically couldn't breathe, it felt like someone was squeezing my throat and I was breathing through an opening no bigger than a pinhead. I remember feeling like I was going to faint because I was crying so hard and fighting to breathe, being just so thankful that she was safe with us, and feeling like I was a terrible mom. Kasey made me feel better by saying that I wasn't a bad mom, this is something that happens sometimes {although, it's not supposed to happen to me...}, that Adiee knowing to calmly look for a person in uniform and to ask for help was just confirmation that she has good parents. But it's 2 days later and I'm still feeling very emotional about the whole ordeal.

It didn't take long for Adiee to recover, can you see the excitement over the giraffe? :)

I love this picture, and holy cow does Mikenna look grown up or what?!

Sweet girls!

We had lunch, shopped in the gift shop {Mikenna got an elephant mood necklace, and some slime with a tiger in it. Adiee picked a frog whose eyes pop out when you squeeze it and a glass frog sculpture. Isla picked a beautiful pink crystal sea horse necklace and a pen with charms on it.} and we called it a day by 3 pm. So we basically paid $60 for 3 hours of freezing our tushes off, and a scary experience I won't ever forget. After we left, we went shopping, to dinner, then went swimming at the hotel.

Look at that face!

 Having a great time!

Easy does it :) What a sweetie pie!

Sunday we took off around noon, Kasey had to get back to town so he could take on-call while Mike left on a business trip... Even when we aren't on-call, our weekends aren't always our own. We're still trying to get used to that. If you're visiting just this post, I posted 2 others earlier {one this morning, and one last night. Just FYI if you wanted to read those as well ;-)} Thanks for reading!

End of May

End of the 2011-2012 school year has come and gone, and with it came many events in the Brown household. The girls' field day was on May 30th. It was VERY windy and a bit chillier than what the forecast said but it didn't deter them from doing their best, and Kasey was able to take off from work early so he could cheer our girls on!

 Game Face! Ha ;)

 She won that round! Woohoo!

 Adiee and her partner took first in the three-legged race as well! So proud!

 Just bouncing between wins!

Working hard for her team during the relay race! Go Adiee!!

I packed up our picnic basket and we had lunch in Adiee's classroom before it was time to head to Mikenna's field day festivities.

 She is a QUICK little thing!!

Just bouncing around...

May 31st was Mikenna and Adiee's last day of school. I'm having a bit of a hard time accepting the fact that Adiee is done with kindergarten. It doesn't seem possible. She has changed and grown so much over the past year. And the fact that Mikenna is going into 3rd grade? Yikes!

Our girls on their last day of school.

I don't think I mentioned this before, but my mom bought Adiee a frog cage for her birthday. I wasn't too thrilled about another living thing that I was going to have to feed and clean, but of course Adiee opened it up and I HAD to order the stinkin' tadpole. He arrived in the mail the last week in April with a note saying his birthday was March 23, 2012. Well I thought he was a goner after the first day because he seemed to shrivel up and even went belly up a few times. I figured I waited too long to feed it even though I followed the directions perfectly. Oh, the guilt! But he proved to be a survivor.

He went from a tadpole to a full-fledged frog over a month's time. I have to admit it was pretty interesting to watch. Adiee named him "Tad", we fed him his "froggy flakes" everyday, and I cleaned that darn cage every single Saturday complete with dechlorination drops and bottled drinking water.

We noticed that he had grown skeleton-like legs the weekend of May 19th, they had filled out and he had sprouted arms by the weekend of May 26th and all of a sudden he was a complete froggy by May 29th. Well, Adiee had arranged to bring Tad into her class to show and tell him on the last day of school but sadly he died the afternoon before. I have no clue as to why, but it was heartbreaking. Adiee got her doctor kit out and wanted to "fix" him but when I explained that it wouldn't work, she took out the latex gloves and picked him up so we could bury him. All of the girls were absolutely devastated. It ripped my heart out to see Adiee's reaction when Kasey and I had to tell her Tad went to heaven. Kasey built a fire in the firepit and we invited the girls' best friends over for smores to help ease their minds. I made a quick memorial page to print out for Adiee to take to school since we couldn't bring Tad in. I went with her to make sure that she wasn't too sad after talking about it, but before she got to say anything I heard a couple of her classmates whispering - I was shocked to hear that they thought they heard that Adiee's DAD died, not TAD... Whoa!! Needless to say we had to put an end to that ASAP!

May 31st was also the girls' last soccer game. Both Mikenna and Adiee got soccer medals for their team efforts after their last game and were super excited!

Adiee starting the game!

She's guarding her goal. Thatta Girl! :)

So that was our May in a nutshell.

Soccer Stars

Dance classes have ended for the season, and soccer has begun... like 3 weeks ago... Yeah, that's how much I've been neglecting my poor family blog. I wanted to post about last weeks games but I didn't have any pictures to go along with my fascinating story about how super amazingly awesome my girls did because the ominous clouds made me weary of bringing out my nice camera. Tonight was a different story. I have a couple great shots from Mikenna's game and Adiee sat this one out since she had a school music performance at the same time as her game.

Singing her heart out :)



She's got rhythm, that's for sure!

Such a cutie pie!

Just got out of her concert, and headed over to see big sister play soccer. Last Thursday's game, Adiee scored her team's first and only goal that night! Way to go, Adiee! Funny tidbit - while at one of her 2 practices, everybody was chasing the ball around the field and I glance over at her and she's prancing around waving her arms in a flying motion being a fairy or something. Silly girl.

At last Thursday's game, Mikenna showed incredible sportsmanship, strength, and talent. It was a very exciting (and a wee bit stressful for mom) game! Mikenna was definitely an asset to her team, and was out on the field most of the game. The opposing team's goalie had caught the ball and kicked it out of his zone and it hit Mikenna right on the side of her face. Did she quit, cry, or even whine? Heck no! She touched her face, snapped out of it, and ran after the ball all within seconds - not even enough time for the referee to call a time out. The goalie was stunned that he hit her, and couldn't believe that she didn't freak out; this is the same goalie who not to much earlier had kicked the ball all the way across the field (so he's got some oomph behind that foot of his!). The entire audience was shocked at her reaction, and when she got on the side of the field all she said was that her face hurt and it was making her eyes water, I don't think I would have even handled that well. Her coach wanted her to sit out for a quarter, but she didn't want to so he sent her right back in. Within that next quarter, Mikenna was in the middle of the cluster of kids clamoring for that stinkin' ball and her feet got knocked out from under her and she was nearly trampled. I was worried but she dusted herself off again, and kept up with everyone. What a STUD! She was confronted by many impressed parents, coaches, kids, and other witnesses for a day or two. Mikenna definitely liked the attention ;)

Fast and Fearless!

Look at her go!!

 Almost a goal!

We are SO proud of our girls!

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.