Holiday Captured

What a magical time our little family had celebrating the birth of our Savior. What a wonderful gift the world was given. How thankful we are for that night, for our Savior.

We had fun and because words can't describe the joy, here are some of our Christmas life moments:












Man we have fun.

Better Late Then Never, Right?

This should be in your mailbox. Didn't you get it? Well you should talk to your local post office. I'm sure I sent them out.

Falling for Christmas

Wednesday was the last day of school, it should have been Tuesday but because a tornado ripped its way through Farmington, wreaking havoc throughout all of the land, and cancelling all of school for two whole wonderful days. We had to have a make-up day on Wednesday ):
In true Kelli fashion, I needed to go out with a bang.
We were with our students in the lunch room, I got up to throw something away and went to step gracefully around one of the student's chair. My Adidas indoor soccer shoe got caught on a nail from the chair and BANG!

It was so humiliating I ran out of the building crying and then might have started it on fire with my mind.
* Please make a special note of how tan my legs are.
** Also please make a note of how toned my legs are.
***Have you seen the movie 'Carrie'?

'O Christmas Tree'

Christmas is officially here in the Brown household.
There are only 5 days until the man in red arrives to leave sweet Nora a few presents and I literally just finished hanging the Christmas decor. (don't tell Chris but I have decided that we will be painting the living room after Christmas so I figure that it wouldn't be a problem if I hang a lot of pictures on the wall because he can just fill the holes before we paint :))

I think Christmas trees are great so I did a whole wall full of pictures of Christmas trees...Christmas trees out of scrap booking paper, Christmas trees from the baby's handprints, some Christmas trees I made Chris draw, Christmas trees out of baby faces feet

Look at those toes, don't you just want to kiss and tickle those tootsies?
Chris and I made these in photoshop, well Chris made them, I directed.

We have a lot of fake trees in our house, but take a look at our real Christmas tree that we cut down. Definitely the prettiest one to date. I usually like to pick the ugliest 'Charlie Brown' one, but I saw this tree and knew it was the one.


Elanora sat on Santa's lap and I was very surprised at her indifference about the whole situation. She just sat there, she never just sits anywhere.

Man is this baby sweet! This is her party dress (stay tuned for pictures of her Sunday Christmas dress)


oh yes Christmas is in full swing. I love this time of year. What a wonderful celebration of the birth of our Savior.

I love this video and it may or may not have made me cry, silly melting heart.

Toe Tappin' Ear Pleasing Tunes

I'm picky about music, but boy am I really picky about Christmas music. I may be a ba-humbug, but if I have to hear Mariah Carey's Christmas song...you know the one I'm talking about. It comes on the radio every 6.2 minutes, yes that one, I will tear down all my Christmas lights that Chris so painstakingly put up and scream.

So here are three fav's of mine that are not so common but oh so good!

Chris hates this one but oh how i love it...it has to be this version :)


All you cats are going to love this hip little hot plate...enjoy daddy-o. I can't get enough, I dig this song!


This song is my favorite of the 3. Beautiful music, beautiful voice, beautiful lyrics. My heart just grew 3 sizes too big.

Thanksgiving Revisited

My last post was mushy and gushy and left my cold, cold heart feeling warm and fuzzy. We all know that gratitude is what it's all about. But it's also about family, food, football, and in our case, a throw-up stunt that cleared the Thanksgiving table.
*Leading up to this tasty event, poor little Nora had been a little under the weather :( She had a runny nose, a little cough, and a sick tummy (resulting in a loss of lunch a few times throughout the week. Poor sweet baby!)
*Also leading up to this event, I was feeding the girl organic baby food, which I make myself.
(Those 2 things are important to note because they become relevant later in the post).
This year it was the Page's turn to have the the Brown family for dinner. I'm sure my family was super stoked (remember when the cool kids used that word?) because I would be making my famous "rainbow jell-o" which takes a very long time to make. And this year it may or may not have been set up all the way, despite putting it into the freezer.(I also made some veggie crap no one liked)

(The glowing jell-o trick was done by Chris after a 25 min. search for a flashlight and 100 pictures to get it just right. I left the project after the first shot).
Jell-o wasn't the only thing we did a photoshoot for. We also did one with all the grandkids (although the jell-o was slightly more cooperative through the process).

This is the kids table, where all the action is.

I mentioned before that I make Elanora's baby food and I use organic fruits and veggies. Well, everyone(mainly my beautiful sis, Amber) thought I would be mad and it would be funny if they fed the baby girl food that had been salted, sugared and poisoned with pestisides. For the record I don't mind, everyone deserves a little salt, sugar and poison on Thanksgiving.
I made her organic yams

Everyone else gave her everything they could think of, including

Lil' Boss was sitting on Grandpa Page's lap while he was feeding her those heavenly mashed potatoes. I paused from shoveling in all the fixins' in my mouth to glance at Nora and noticed she was looking a little off. I told my dad "I think she's going to throw up." He laughed and said, "No way, she loves this real food," and at that exact moment the poor baby threw-up all over my dad. Boy does she know how to clear the Thanksgiving table.
What a great Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

Due to the holiday season we've just embarked upon, and seeing that Thanksgiving is the first and quite possibly the most delicious stop on this years holiday ride, I feel that it would be apropos to write about the things that I am most thankful for.

To be honest, as I've reflected on Chris' and my journey together these past 9 years, I feel as if we have been blessed so abundantly and have been so happy that it seems almost unfair. We will never be able to give thanks enough.

We don't always have what we want, but we definitely always have what we need. We live pretty simple in a little house that may occasionally have a few leaks in the roof and not enough space for all the babyfaces clothes and equipment. A little house that is nestled in a very interesting neighborhood. But we think it's perfect(well Chris thinks it works functionally, i.e. a roof over our head, but thinks aesthetically it has a ways to go). We are so blessed and we are so happy!

Life has given us a few bumps and bruises and interesting plot twists to keep us on our toes along the way. The most interesting plot twist to our little earthly life story and definitely the one thing we feel most grateful and blessed for, is our sweet little Elanora.

When Chris and I got married, kids were a part of our picture perfect plan. As our two plans started to unfold and knit together, kids just didn't seem to be on our blueprints. A few years went by, and then a few more with no luck. Finally 7 years were laid out behind us and we were missing what we most desired.

So we mourned. We mourned for my perfect body that was functioning so imperfectly (we nicknamed me the 'red barren' ...long story about a talk in church, a red dress I was wearing, and laughing really hard). We mourned for our perfect family we were supposed to have, a mini van full of screaming, singing, fighting babies.

When I was too sad to continue Chris would pick me up. When he was too sad to keep on truckin' I would slowly continue on for the both of us.

We finally made the decision that we were going to have to have faith in our Heavenly Father's plan, whether or not that included kids. It was not easy. We started telling our families that we couldn't have kids, then a few months later I started to feel sick and 9 months later...

We are so thankful for Elanora. We are so thankful for each other and we are especially thankful for our faith to help us through this crazy world! Happy Thanksgiving!
(pictures and written adventures to come about baby girls first Thanksgiving... family, food, fun and the baby may or may not have thrown up on my dad, you will have to wait to see :))

La Leche League Dropout

The lil' boss is almost 8 months now and that cliche that everyone says, you know the one, "they grow up so fast, cherish every moment because before you know it they will be in college." It happens to be true. I almost don't remember having to wake up every 2 hours in the middle of the night, or how hard my sweet baby girl was those first months. You know, the acid reflux, the colic and the 70 different meds we tried...none of which worked.


But I still remember how terrified I was to bring this sweet little thing home. I was never scared about the delivery, I can handle pain. The real terrifying part would be the fact that I was going to have to be responsible for this perfect little girl. I would have to do things like clip teeny, tiny finger nails, bathe her fragile frame without breaking her, clothe her, and feed her.
I'm not delusional, I'm being realistic. I'm fully aware that I'm probably going to screw up this parenting thing. But I wanted to be as prepared to fail as possible.
Before Elanora was born I read a lot of books and took some classes. One of the classes that I took and forced Chris to go to with me was a breast feeding class(can I say breast on this blog?). I wanted to be the best darn nursing mother this side of the Mississippi.
But never in a thousand years could any class prepare me for nursing. Every nurse in the hospital had a different technique, two lactation nurses gave me 2 completely opposite helpful hints.
The day we took the baby home she had only eaten maybe 4 times. I cried all the way home. How in the world could the hospital send me home with her when I couldn't even feed her.
It did get easier, but I never really enjoyed it so much. Some women told me it would be the best experience in my life. Well it was kind of a pain. I always had to be the one to wake up and feed her in the middle of the night. Or if Chris and I were eating, I was the one that had to stop eating and go into the other room and feed the cute, hungry girl. But I stuck with it and I was sure I would make La Leche League proud and feed my baby until she was 3 years old.
Well.... I'm a La Leche League dropout. I made it to a little over 6 months and between nursing in the morning and at night and pumping twice at work, I wasn't producing enough. So Nora now nurses in the morning, sometimes at night and formula the rest of the time.
I'll tell you a secret...I miss it. I never enjoyed it, but now I miss it. And now I change my mind, I loved nursing! Holding, so close, my sweet little girl. I miss it!
Darn it, I'm a Le Leche League dropout.

The Day Heavenly Father Sent Me Flowers

I've always liked to learn. I was one of those crazy students in High School that honestly loved school and not just because I sat by the cute boy in history, although I in fact did sit by the cute boy :)My Kindle is chuck full of history, math, and science books. I'm currently reading Astronomy 101. I know, I know, I'm a pretty exciting person. Can you just imagine what my Friday night is like (it might involve changing stinky diapers, making up songs to the baby Mozart CD, then 8:00 bedtime story and a bedtime song).
But what I really love is when I learn an old concept in a new way...some might say having an epiphany or having an ah-ha moment (although I hate when people call it this, I don't know why I don't like it, I just don't. So if you are one of the everyone that calls it this, don't hate me because I don't like this little phrase, just don't say it in front of me :)) .
I had an epiphany Wednesday night at Relief Society. I know what you are thinking, "When did Kelli start going to Relief Society?" It just kinda happened...and don't tell anyone, but, I think I love to go now.
We had a yummy dinner and then two speakers from the ward spoke. Their talks were on service. This is where I have to be honest. Once I heard what they were going to be talking about, I was less then enthusiastic to listen. Thinking to myself, "It's service, what is there to learn? How many new angles can there be?" Boy was I wrong.
The speaker...we will just say her name starts with an "E" and ends with a "MILY." For the record, she makes really yummy food and she told me I could post this.
She told a story about when she was in college and like most college students she was on a tight budget. Squeaking by with just enough for groceries(or in my case forgoing the groceries for a concert ticket...food is over rated anyway, right?). She described a day where she was running errands and she drove by a flower shop and thought to herself "Man, I wish I could buy myself some flowers today," but seeing that she was on a tight budget, she finished running her errands, not stopping to buy any flowers.
When she returned home, laying on her bed were flowers with a note from her friend. She asked her friend why she had given her flowers. Her friend replied "I felt an impression that I should buy you flowers, so I did." Emily, I mean "E" said that only One person knew that she had wanted those flowers, so that was the day that Heavenly Father sent her flowers.
She continued to say that she was telling another friend about the flowers and this friend was crying. Emily thought this was strange because although it was a great thing that had happened, it had happened to herself and she wasn't even crying. The friend told Emily that she had the same impression to buy her flowers but failed to act upon it. The story brought up two very good lessons. The first is that Heavenly Father loved her so much and knows us so well that He knew that she needed flowers that day. And He loved her so much that He prompted not one, but two people so that she would get her flowers.
The second lesson was, do we listen when Heavenly Father asks us to do something or does he have to ask someone else because we don't act upon the prompting?
Isn't it so wonderful to know that Heavenly Father knows us and loves us? There are many times when I think, "I should send a note or give someone a call." Then I second guess myself and say, "That's dumb, they don't want a note or call from me." and then Heavenly Father has to ask someone else.
I just hope the next time Heavenly Father gets an order for flowers, He'll choose me to deliver them :)

Life Under the Big Top

Is there anything better then Halloween...I don't think so.
This year I decided that we need to celebrate my favorite holiday in style. Unfortunately for Chris that meant... COORDINATING COSTUMES!!! And because most days its a little like a circus around here, I thought we should run with it. So I made the executive decision that Chris would be the Strongman (because his muscles are super big and he is already so strong, he wouldn't need much of a costume). The baby would be a sweet little elephant and I would be the chick who performs with the elephants.
I also decided a few days before Halloween that because I had so much extra time on my hands and because I have never sewn a button on a shirt that I should make the costumes myself.
We only had 3 hot glue gun burns, 1 homemade muscle man costume that did turn out like the Internet said it would, 1 barbell that fell apart the minute the strongman picked it up(only because he was that strong), 1 baby who hated wearing her costume, and 1 mental breakdown due to post-pregnancy body image problems. Other then those minor problems the circus was up and running!
So without further adue I present to you Halloween '11

Notice the weights that fell off the barbell and Chris's awesome muscle that for some reason just look like balloons under panty hoes

I didn't make my costume, it was my sisters old ballet costume. I just cut it up and rearranged it and added ribbon to my plastic Mary Jane shoes.


Have you ever seen a cuter elephant? I had a red bow to go by her ears to match my outfit but alas I forgot it :( Because she is so cute, here is another picture of her.

She only lasted 6 pictures and then she was done being an elephant so I changed her into her backup Halloween costume

We also added disgusting new food to this years menu

Scooby Dooby Doo, Where Are You?...

...He happens to be solving a mystery at Eagle Bay Elementary. There seems to be a haunted classroom, or is it a haunted school bus, or maybe a haunted playground...are you scared? Well no worries, let me alleviate your fears by telling you ***SPOILER ALERT------> that the episode with the haunted classroom, or the haunted school bus, or the haunted playground will all end up not really being haunted, it's ok, it's really not a ghost, just the principal trying to scare the teachers and trying, for some reason, to sabatoge her very own school. I won't bore you with the intricate story line, which takes so many interesting and unexpected twists along the way, but I will tell you that it's a ghost story definetly in need of detective skills from...

Oh yes my friends, they were all there at Eagle Bay Elementery(minus Shaggy and Scooby Doo. They unfortunately had other ghost tracking commitments involving a haunted circus, so a stuffed Scooby helped solve the mystery at the school), protecting the sudents from the classroom *gHoOooOSt*
There was the strapping Fred,(the teacher I work for actually dyed his hair for the ocassion...so awesome!)

There was the beautiful Daphne (We forced her to wear this costume, with the threat of diaper duty for a month if she wouldn't wear it ;))

And the nerdy, Thelma (awesome Savers skirt and sweater combo, I might have to wear to church and my moms prescription glasses, which I couldn't see out of, perfect!)

Of course we needed to travel in style (I spent a whole morning working on this beauty, but well worth it!)

We have the cutest students! I wish you could see how cute they all are, you would just die! We had a Pirate, Santa Clause, a witch, a blue m&m, a ghost, a frog, and a cat.
We made these monster mouths (thank you Pinster... I mean, Pinterest)

This is the monster mouth the teacher made :)

Did Scooby solve the mystery? Well of course, and the gang had a great time doing it!

I Guess it's Time

I wish I was able to be home everyday, all day with the babyface, but that isn't going to happen this week. Luckily for me I absolutely love my job. It couldn't get any better. I work as a special education teacher's assistant. I work with the most beautiful children and everyday they make me smile.
A couple of days ago I was at work and one of the students was sitting next to me. He grabbed my upper arm, he looked at me and said "squishy, squishy." I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair. Now he thinks it is funny so everyday at least twice he grabs my arm and says "squishy, squishy."
So I guess it's that time, time to work out. The baby is 6 months old, it's definitely time to start working out again. no more 'squishy, squishy'.
I start right after I finish this

The Case of the Runaway Shopping Cart

The case of the runaway shopping cart has yet to be solved, but its path of destruction still lingers upon my foot. The facts are listed below. Nancy Drew, can you figure out what happened?
-6:00 p.m. Chris and I are doing a little Halloween shopping at Target.
-Chris and his 'manly muscles' are pushing the shopping cart.
-I'm leisurely strolling to the right of the shopping cart.
-Sweet Princess is chillin' in her car seat, riding in the shopping cart.
-6:13 p.m. Out of the blue, the shopping cart wheels out of control and over the top of my unsuspecting foot.
- The proof of this crazy turn of events is instantly left upon my left foot(picture is 4 days after the fact, can you imagine what it looked like when it happened...the injustice).

-6:23 p.m. Chris felt bad, I laughed (after I cried) because clearly even though Chris thought we were turning right and I did not, something or someone interfered with the wheels of that shopping cart. A stick in the aisle? A broken tile on the ground? A banana peel? A Halloween ghost you ask? We will never know. The case of the runaway shopping cart may never be solved.

Yaaada Yaaddaa Yadaa... We Saw a Zebra

This last week the Brown family of three had their first vacation together.
Wednesday night we packed up our little blue car (we were going to rent a car so we wouldn't put more miles on the luxurious Dodge Neon but yaada, yaada, yaada... no rental car) with all our junk, the babyface, and our friend Ashley(her sweet daughter was already in St. George and her hubby Jason drove down Friday night).
We left at 6:00pm. It was a very stormy night and some parts of the drive were really scary. We hydro-planed, I kept asking Chris if he was nervous, he got tired of me asking, baby slept and yada, yaddaa, yaaddda...we got to St. George at 11:30pm.
We stayed at Hotel Jensen, the beautiful home of our friend Ashley's very nice parents.
The main reason we went down to St. George was to watch my pops play softball in the senior games.

When we woke up Thursday morning we walked out on the balcony of Hotel Jensen and across the street just happened to be the park were my dad was playing and guess who just happened to be in the parking lot...my dad, funny.
The last couple years his team, 'Second Wind', have won a couple of gold medals, a couple of silvers and a few bronze medals. Unfortunately one of their players got hurt, not enough players to play and yaaddda yaada yada... no metal.
I'm so proud of my dad, he's amazing. We loved watching him play and can't wait to see him and his team dominate next year!

We made Elanora a cute little onesie(shout out to Dawn who helped us print the transfer)that said 'Second Wind' and had #19 on the back(my dads number). Someone put 'Second Wind' on the onesie upside down(Chris) and yaadaa, yadda, yaada...we had to get creative to fix the upside down 'Second Wind'(shout out to Ashley who helped us fix the upside down 'Second Wind' at 1:00 in the morning.


What is a vacation without lots of food? We ate at (in chronological order) McDonald's, Chuck a Rama, Egg and I, Taste of St. George
(this was held at the park. Local restaurants had booths set up so you could taste their food. Pic is of Elanora and Addy at the park.), Anasazi Steakhouse. Anasazi Steakhouse was really yummy! I give it 5 stars, a smiley face and two thumbs up. We had cheese fondue to start with and that was super good. Then I had steak and Chris had chicken. They serve the meat on a hot stone. You're able to control how well done you want your meat. The longer you keep the meat on the stone the more well done it gets. Fun. Then we had chocolate fondue, I hate chocolate but I did like the fruit! Yaadaa yadda yada...add 10 pounds to my belly.
We had many more wondrous adventures: We went to Tuacahn, and took a picture of the cast of 'The Little Mermaid'

Wait a minute, that is the cutest little red crab I've ever seen!
'The Little Mermaid' was sold out but my parents took us up there to look around. I've never been there. It was breathtaking!


We went to a fun pet store, did some shopping(I got a cute hoodie, Chris got a cute hoodie, when we got home he tried his on, the zipper was on the wrong side, yaddda, yaada, yada...I got two hoodies),went to the splash pad, Climbed on some red rocks

To get this picture I set the timer, I ran apparently not fast enough yaddaa, yaada yaaddaa...best picture we took :)
What vacation is complete without a little brush with the law?

We really did get a ticket, but so did our friends Jason and Ashley. Funny.

yaddada yaada yadda...we saw a zebra