High 5

Life has been crazy busy through the move, travel with work (Brant), etc.

Here is what we found Heath doing while I was packing.

Even with everything that is going on I still managed to lose my little boy and have an official 5 year old KID. I knew life was moving so fast but this is just crazy how can my baby be 5?

 Sunday, Heath turned 5 we let him open a present from Grandma and Grandpa Brown before church on Sunday, (we thought it would be safe) they gave him a sling-shot!

brant will agree to almost anything that early :)

This completes his title of Dennis the Menace. J
For his Birthday dinner Heath chose Fish sticks and potato salad, that is definitely a Heath/Brown combination!

That night we let him open another gift.

he was very excited

 We celebrated his birthday with a 5-finger-food party.

Here he is with the boys


Lto R Jared, Cooper, HEATH, Paden, Porter,Ethan (blocked by) Dillan 

  More kids enjoying finger foods

Autumn & Tyson

More presents


Lto R Autumn, Heath, Dayton

 And of course cake and ice cream.

He looks so cute about to make a wish

Heath is our little secret agent and he loves Perry the platypus from Phineas and Ferb. Here is my attempt at a platypus cake.

 There are 5 letters in his name; here are 5 things we love about HEATH!

Hilarious

He says or does something every day that makes us laugh

Energetic

This kid is always in hyper-drive; he runs everywhere, does everything at full speed. He won't even admit to sleeping J

Affectionate
he is so physical loves to wrestle & cuddle

Thinker

This kid is so smart and asks great questions, he is a very creative problem solver.

Hands

He loves them and has since he was very tiny, he is very selective when it comes to holding hands

This picture fits my little man

Happy Birthday, Big, little Guy thank you so much for joining our family!

+ This to my list

I was leaving to pick up Rianne from school, only to have a strange delay, the garage door didn't shut, so I pushed the button again, it shut. Turned the key to the car and it didn't start, I turned the key again it started right up. This may have only delayed me
5 seconds
but that is just what I needed. As I approached the intersection to enter the highway, a truck was fading fast, I thought he is going to hit me, I reached to reverse but didn't have time the driver of the truck just missed me and the stop sign by about 5 seconds. The truck continued taking out a fence and drifting through the field, kicking up so much dust. Then it crashed into the garage of a home. That is when I made my first 911 call and hopefully my last. This picture isn't great but, if you look close you can see the tire tracks where the driver comes off the road. So close to where I was!

I feel so protected and I have no question that the Lord is aware of me and loves me. Here is what the newspaper had about the accident; I was hoping they would have pictures.

The driver of a truck crashed through the garage of a Timberline home Monday afternoon.

According to information from the Summit Fire District, firefighters were called to a home off North Highway 89 at about 3:30 p.m. on a report of a vehicle crash. The report included information that the vehicle crashed into a garage.

When crews arrived, they found a large, full-sized truck that had been traveling south on the highway had gone off road for about a quarter-mile before slamming through a fence, a shed and a garage. The crash damaged three other vehicles inside the garage and caused significant damage to the garage and home. The homeowner, who told rescuers that the crash "felt like an earthquake," evacuated the home.

The driver of the truck was the only person injured and transported to Flagstaff Medical Center for treatment. A prior medical condition might have contributed to the crash. The crash is being investigated by officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

This experience reminded me of one I had as kid, I won't go into too much detail but a bull charged and I slid under a fence. I have thought the Lord could have stopped the bull, changed the course of events. But would I then recognize the miracle of His protecting hand? Evidence of His love.

Feels good to be Home

This is a bit of a deep post because I am overwhelmed with gratitude and the inability to truly express it. President Henry B Eyring gave a talk in 2007 O Remember, Remember. --"Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today? As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done. More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that came because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened."
I have been writing things down, not as faithfully as President Eyring but over the course of the year I too, have seen the hand of God, and felt what president Eyring articulated so much better than I could. These moments have become very special to me and I don't share too many of them.
I want to humbly try to express what I feel is another miracle and we've been blessed with so many this year. Early in July we had made an offer on another home, it had been accepted, but when we looked through it again, it just wasn't right. I was again disappointed. We asked about the house we had looked at months before. Our realtor said, she would check but would be surprised if it was still available. Blessings amid disaster; in June the Shultz fire burned 15,000 acres in the flagstaff area, this fire limited access to the home listed.

We made an offer knowing it was a long shot, but convincing ourselves that the worst they could say was no, our realtor told us she would put it in, but reminded us that even in this economy homes were not going for 20% less than their appraised value. Even though our offer was significantly lower than the listing price we got an approved offer, we couldn't believe it. 1700 square foot home, four-bed, 2 bath on an acre, we were so excited; it was perfect. Then the thunder, a big rain storm on July 20^th, the day after the accepted offer. Monsoon Season hit with flooding and for a while I felt like we were living in Water Ward. The mud slides and floods were devastating. We drove to our would-be home, only to see the home across the street and the neighbor to the left with mud to their doors. I looked at the slope of our driveway leading to the garage, the mud that lined our would-be shed and I was sure that this house too, would enter our list of ones that just didn't work out. To my amazement the mud stopped 3 feet from our garage and the next closest spot was mud right to the flower bed at the corner of the house.
 

took this after it had dried and we drove on it

The flood had missed our home, I still can't explain how. Setting out to protect our investment, we borrowed a neighbor's truck and started clearing out the ditch and sandbagging, I was full of questions; what is this going to do to the property value?, Is it really going to work out?, How can we even afford these house payments? I still don't know the answers to these questions but I feel a great deal of peace. We looked up to see a double rainbow stretching across the sky and ending at our home. Not some YouTube video but true confirmation. Our Father in Heaven knows us, we know he wants us in Flagstaff and we are trying our best to stay in alignment with Him and he is truly opening the windows of heaven! God does keep His promises.

You can see Brant in the ditch

I still don't know how we can afford to live here in flagstaff, but I know it is where we are suppose to be and miraculously we have been making ends meet. We officially closed on our house September 10^th. The rains grew some amazingly tall weeds that will take some work but it feels so good to be home!

Brant left for Tucson for work on the 12^th, I set out to put the house in some sort of order while he was gone. Rianne got the flu; I had homework with my master's classes, and all the boxes! It was a stressful week but I have recognized His hand through the kindness of others, loading and unloading boxes, meals, encouragement etc. Two people who live to Go and Do! They are the ONLY way I survived the week. I don't know what I would have done without them. Annette came over, and got rid of my maroon wall! She taped, primed and painted.

Tera brought me boxes even when I thought I had enough but didn't and then after I emptied them took them to someone else. When I thought there is no way I would have done everything I wanted to before Brant came home, they came to my rescue again. Tera showed up with pitas for dinner and they moved furniture, got the house in the order just the way I wanted for Brant. Annette and Tera make my gratitude journal on a regular basis.

We are still not completely moved in, but Brant came home to a home cooked meal, a kitchen, pantry and bathroom in order and other things underway. He was extremely surprised and pleased with the newly painted wall; I was so excited his reaction was better than expected. I still had plenty of projects for him when he returned and the list will continue to grow. The blessings keep coming we have renters so we can get out of our rental agreement and Brant will be the assistant director of admissions over transfer credit, which will bring a nice raise and less travel (starting in November). It will still be tight, but I am incredibly grateful and humbled that He continues to bless us!

It started

Last day before it starts

I was not ready, because it came so fast after my trip, I'm not caught up, I didn't do the things I had intended to do this summer and we will be moving into our home next week. I was not ready to lose my best help! (Brant is great help too, but travel season with work STARTS too!)
I started in my new calling in activity days. I still don't know how I feel about this calling, I was nervous for the Armor of God activity. But it turned out okay, don't laugh at my art abilities ;)! I showed them a girl already for school and asked if her spirit was ready? Then we read the scripture to get our spirits ready.

Don't laugh @ my art work, you get the point

 We gave the girls the material to create their own armor, they told us how it protects us physically, then spiritually, as we dressed one of the girls in the armor, and shot "fiery darts" at her.

They were very creative, loved the Peace shoes and that Rianne's helmet looks like Football!

I hope it was fun and they learned something. I love that the ONLY weapon in all that armor is the sword of the spirit which is the word of God!

putting on the whole Armor

I'm not too sentimental when it comes to the kids going back to school. I did fine when Rianne started kindergarten, well up until Heath ran to her line and wrapped his little arms around her legs and said "I don't want you to go".

1st day of school, yes that is a hypercolor shirt, crazy huh?

Rianne also started school, before Heath's preschool did, which means I get told (not asked) to "go get her" and "it's time for Ria to come home now", about 20 times a day! I am glad they get along so well! I don't think my kids will get many chances to match up with a teacher who shares their values. I am thrilled with Rianne's teacher this year. I hope the academic results are better than last year as well. The first week of school brought the best teacher note home ever, with a message that "parents are NOT to bring their child's homework to school for them, if they forget it". Yes where do I sign? Thank you for supporting my efforts to teach responsibility and praise effort/process not product! Rianne is obedient, extremely obedient but the transition to obediently responsible is a little trickier. It is hard to believe she is ½ halfway through Elementary School! 

3rd day of 3rd grade

Heath and I started school a week later. Our last round of preschool, I still haven't decided how I feel about it. They dropped the master's program I was pursuing, so, I started on my coursework towards a masters in; Human Relations. It is part of Educational Psychology program. I don't know exactly what I want to be when I have to grow up, but this feels good. Why can't I just get paid for being a mom, really? I'm helping the work force my kids will learn to work and statistically speaking they should receive an education, and stay out of prison. I'm doing my part to help out the economy right? I would take on more children too. I'm not asking for an income that would allow me a maid or a mansion, (although both would be nice, but not one without the other!) I just need a little more to budgetJ!

We had another start this weekend FOOTBALL SEASON! I love it! Thursday, we went to the NAU game, Friday we went to a high school football game to watch Tyler and yesterday the sounds of football filled the house (made my heart happy) as we packed boxes and watched some college games. We also listened to the BYU game! Nice job Go Cougars and way to go Big T!