Christmas Highlight Reel

 

Once the camera started to roll it just didn't stop. We have a crazy amount of footage to enjoy, so enjoy. Let the holiday picture blitz begin
 

We started with a trip to the Ogden City Christmas lights

Sunday Christmas dress

Christmas Eve, Page family Christmas Party. Elanora was a little 'lamby' in the family Nativity scene. Notice how mild-mannered she is. Sitting through the scriptures being read, so calmly

(Yes, my child is the one that is sliding out of the arms of sweet Gracie, who is trying hard to contain the wild little lamb)

Christmas morning. This Little Angel loved every second of it. Every present she opened she would oohhhh and ahhhh, clap and laugh. She may always be on the go, but she is the happiest little girl I have ever seen. She truly loves life and Christmas was no exception

This is her opening her kitchen. I snapped these pictures as fast as I could

 

Christmas Day at Grammy and Grampy Page's house

And a crazy Snow day

Unfortunately, because of the crazy snow storm we had to re-schedule a trip to Grandma and Grandpa Brown's house. Their house is where we will end this blizzard of a holiday season. With a trip to a Beatles rock band party in-between.

My Elf Trumps Your Elf

Elf on the shelf is pretty cool. Especially if you are one of those super creative, super prepared, super consistent kind of people. Does the Brown family have an Elf on the Shelf? You may be asking yourselves that very question, because inquiring minds want to know... right? Come on people, did

 you just read the second sentence of this post?

But don't you worry, just because that little red suited, slightly creepy eyed, cut you hair in the middle of the night kind of elf does not reside on the Brown's shelf, I assure you that Babyface still gets the joy of having an elf visit her just in time for the 12 days of Christmas.  Her little buddy might not bring her elf sized, cheerio sprinkled donuts or make snow angels in the flour but he does bring her a little present each day of the 12 days leading up to Christmas...except sometimes he skips a day and has to bring two presents in one day. Silly little elf. On a separate note, my mom is awesome. And on another separate note, I hope she doesn't read this and find out that the elf has not been as consistent as she would have liked.

Now you may be wondering how the advent calender is going

Day 6

 

Day 7

 

 

Day 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

(Because we are so consistent, we might have had to do 1 or 2 days together...or 8)

 

 

 

Grandma Brown took the whole fam. on the Provo Christmas Cruise. It was so much fun. You know the pouring down rain kinda fun! Chris and I love taking our little bundle of joy (wait until you see the picture of babyface on the cruise) around. She gets so excited over anything and everything. She was a little more quiet then usual. That 's what 40 layers of clothes will do to you

 



Grandma Brown and Grammy Page are sure making the holidays fun for our little Nora!

Got To Love Grandmas!!!

 Elanora is such a happy little thing. She flits and fluts from here to there, singing and laughing, ooooing and aahhhing at everything.

She loves many things. One of my favorite quotes is by Vincent Van Gogh, who just happens to be one of my favorite artists (Coincidence? I think not). "Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well."

Nory Bug loves many things but most of all she loves her family. When she is falling asleep at night she says all her cousins names over and over again. While driving in the car she says their names over and over again.

Grandmas are the best and my lucky gal has two of the best and boy how she loves her Grandma Brown and her Grammy Page.

Last weekend Elanora got to go to Grandma Brown's annual kids Christmas party. She was so happy to see her Grandma and cousins that when Chris dropped her off she said "Ok, bye" and ran to play.  That little baby had so much fun! She made a gingerbread house (with the help of sweet cousin Ashley), looked at all the neighborhood Christmas lights, Christmas tree ornament painting, a pancake with sprinkle breakfast, running around like the wild child she is, and fun, fun, fun

 

 

Chris surprised me with a little get away to Park City. We stayed at the Newpark Resort.

Chris chose the hotel because of the architecture

 

 

 I loved the awesome bubble bath 

 

 

We both loved the view from the hot tub that was on the porch of our room. We enjoyed the wintery goodness while staying toasty warm

 

(clearly this was taken during another season)

Thank you Grandma Brown for the wonderful weekend!!!

Yay for Christmas!

 

Christmas spirit has metaphorically exploded at our house. If it had literally exploded I am pretty sure it would have looked like this

 

 

 

We started our Christmas season off with the traditional Christmas tree hunt. Unfortunately this took place in some dudes backyard because our usual forest we go to needs to grow more Christmas trees because it is out of stock, darn it. We managed to get a beaut' this year and still cut it down ourselves. I wish you could see how nice it looks in the picture but there is a super cute little angel in the way. Did you know angels wear bunny beanies? Well they do!

 

 

Lil' angel face loved running through the trees with the cousins

 

 

Not only does that baby pick out great trees but she is also a Christmas tree decorating extraordinaire! Just look at that concentration

 

 

Chris and I are so excited this year because we will be using this amazingly crafty advent calendar my amazingly talented mom-in-law made for us a couple of years ago

 

 

She gave us a nativity set, the different pieces go in the pockets and every year she gives us candy to put in the pockets, alternating between candy and a nativity piece for each day in December. In past years, Chris and I ate all the candy in one day, which used to serve us well and was pretty good. Oh, but look at that face, it makes it holding off on the one time sugar high to let Lil' Boss open one pocket everyday...worth it!

 

 

I got cute little cards off the good ol' intra-net and I photoshopped the name of the nativity piece and corresponding scriptures to read right onto the cards

 

 

The candy part is really working out for Elanora but the scripture part is a little challenging. She doesn't like to hold still very long. She likes to flip the scripture pages and as we read she says, "No (pushing the scriptures away), candy, candy, CANDY" then proceeds climbing up the couch to sneak candy out of the pockets

 

 

 

What a fun way to fill our little gingerbread of a home with the Christmas spirit!

 

Day 1

 

Day 2 (The Star)

(My father-in-law made the manger. Man that family is oozing with talent!)

Day 3

Day 4 (Joesph)

Day 5

 

 Yay for Christmas!

 

 

 

 



Recap and Moving On

The days in November were crossed off the calendar before I had the chance to uncap the red pen. The ink blurring and smearing across my right hand as I frantically wrote, trying to keep up with the passing days. And here we are, enter December stage right.

BOOKS I READ THIS MONTH:
-A zombie book (forgot the name...it was that good)
-78% of 'Destination Frightville, 13 US haunts to visit if you dare'
  by Harrison Clancy (it is what it is and it is a book about scary
  places)
-'American Blood' by Gregory Holden (Vampire book)           
-Finished up  'Pictures of the Mind, What the new Neuroscience    
  Tells Us About Who We Are' by Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald
  (extremely interesting. Loved it!)
-Started 'Why Presidents Win' by Hal Hansen(not far enough to have
   an opinion)

IPOD PLAYLIST:
 My playlist this month could have been called 'love mix tape'. All the songs are tied to a memory with the hubby

As is, Ani DiFranco
Between the Sheets, Imogen Heap(can I post this on my blog?)
A song that shall remain nameless, Sublime
Sound of Pulling Heaven Down, Blue October
In My Life, The Beatles(Our song, ahhhh sweet)
Toxic, Yael Naim
All I do Is Dream of You, Dean Martin
Angel Dream, Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers
Black, Pearl Jam
I Walk the Line, Johnny Cash
Shake It, Metro Station
1,2,3,4, Fiest
Get Higher, Paper Tongues

NOVEMBER CDS I DIG:
Muse, The 2nd Law
Of Monsters and Men
Bon Iver, Blood Bank

THINGS THE LIL' BOSS LOVES TO DO:
Spell her name as I write the letters down(sometimes she forgets the a's)
Count to 11 (we were feeding the horses and she just started counting and made it to 11, crazy baby)
Sing 'Twinkle, Twinkle'
Go to nursery
Kiss people to get what she wants
Look at Christmas lights
Say amen really loud after someone says a prayer
Anything with her cousins
  

 

Pink Turkey and Rainbow Jello

 

Thanksgiving was a big day, full of family, food, vampires and a huge karaoke program. Unfortunately this was the only picture we took of this beautiful day.

 

 

 

 After an amazing dinner (of course my famous rainbow jello showed up) and a super good movie that was full of bad acting and horrible special effects but just enough vampire lovin'. Kira directed a Thanksgiving program that just couldn't be beat. Lil' Boss really got the hang of karaoke. She would sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and stare everyone down, making sure we were cheering for her. Poor baby was so exhausted after her first karaoke experience, she fell asleep 2 seconds after being in the car.

 

The Brown's not only celebrated with the Page's on Thanksgiving but on Saturday we made a trip to good ol' Grantsville to enjoy some more turkey and a little Thanksgiving drama.

 What is Thanksgiving without a little drama? The trouble all started when the oven decided to turn off a little early. Pink turkey anyone? My poor, wonderful Mom- In-Law felt so bad that we had to wait for the oven to pre-heat again and then finish cooking that yummy turkey.

Memories, funny, funny memories.

Good things are worth the wait. Right Nory bug?

 

 

We are so blessed to have 2 wonderful families, a beautiful baby girl, a crazy amount of animals, a warm house, cars that run, friends, and a loving Heavenly Father.

 

 

 

 

 

A Most Wholesome Family Fun Packed Vacation

If you thought that my little Brown family couldn't possible have another vacation as sweet as the "Horse, Architecture, and Beach Retreat," then you better hold on to your socks because at the beginning of October the Browns enjoyed another little family adventure to St. George. Not quite as exotic as California mind you, but what we lacked in traveling time, we made up in wholesome family fun!
Every year my pops plays softball in the World Huntsman Senior Games. Last year we went down to watch him play and had so much fun we decided to make it an annual trip. Unfortunately, my dads team was out of the playoffs before we got down there which is a bummer and probably the first time his team hasn't made it to the playoffs...ever. Nory Bug still looked super cute in her official "Second Wind" team uniform even if she didn't get to see her Gramps play.

Because we weren't able to watch America's favorite pastime, we had to fill our little vacation with other wholesome activities because you know what they say, "A family that plays together stays together," or some sort of cheesy jazz like that, right?

We started the vaCae out with a little antique shopping. Well me and my mom did. Chris, my dad and the babyface opted out of this activity.  Rumor had it that the little shop we went to was owned by a hoarder and her kids want her to get rid of everything but she doesn't want to and so she's upset with her family. Of course we needed to investigate. The rumors seem to be accurate, at least on a few accounts. The place was crazy full of stuff. I can't even  begin to describe how packed with stuff the rooms of this little shop were. We did find some cool stuff.  I was a little disappointed because I was sure there would be a ghost in the basement hanging out with all the creepy old dolls and paintings. But alas, no ghost on this wholesome family fun vacation.

There was of course cemetaries on this trip. They may or may not have been haunted (Darn it, still no ghost sightings for me).

This was at Graften, which is a ghost town by Rock City. We had fun looking at old buildings, chasing lizards, rock hounding around (my madre is a crazy rock hounder. Chris and her are always looking for treasures), and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

 

What is a wholesome family vacation without a little apple pickin'? You think I am joking

 

 

 

We were driving around and saw a sign that said apple picking so we thought "what the heck"

 

Little boss loved every minute of it!

 

We even saw a parade.

 

 

Chris and my mom wanted to stop at a rock store. Because they really are crazy rock hounders

 

 

It was pretty exciting. They picked out an uncracked geode and the crazy worker cut it open for them. I wish I had video it was like Christmas morning. Chris and my mom were so excited. They picked a good one. It was really crystally inside :)

 

How about a magical ride on a carousel?

 

(Good thing Grandma and Grandpa stepped up and rode with that sweet little pixie. I was feeling crappy and Chris can't even look at the carousel without getting motion sickness)

 

Nothin' like a good ol' creek stomping fun

 

 

Don't worry of course we let Elanora drink out of recycled water, water that tons of kids were running around in...yum!

 

 

This is where the vacation takes a turn for the worst. We were going to eat at Chuck A Rama and then my parents were going to watch Babyface so Chris and I could have a hot date at the movies, but unfortunately, I was feeling sick that whole day and by evening I was down for the count. No fun to have the flu on vacation :(

 

The last stretch of vacation was a side trip to Grantsville for some pun'kin painting with the cousins

 

 

Baseball, ghost towns, apple pickin', parade watching ,geode smashing, carousel riding, creek stompin', pun'kin painting, does it get any more wholesome or any better then that?

 

 

I think not!