Sure

Sure deodorant

I don't normally go to church like this but I took a picture so my mom could see my object lesson. I am blogging it, for her because it was a little unconventional. I started the lesson asking the girls how I looked yesterday (we had a youth temple trip) then asked how I looked today? The girls were too nice and told me I still looked cute but admitted I looked better yesterday. I talked about how it is just the same thing every day and asked why it was important to do it. They said they just feel better when they have taken care of themselves. I asked what would happen if I only showered once a week or brushed my teeth occasionally. Then I shared the lesson about living the gospel every day, and although it doesn't save us from bad hair days we are able to get through it when we apply the principles we talked about Love, Service, Obedience, work, study, and Prayer. I talked about how we wouldn't think of leaving for school without brushing our hair, but do we sometimes leave without saying our prayers? I hope the girls understand that it may not be as noticeable on the outside but He knows and we should try to live the gospel daily in our lives. The quote I gave them was this: " The SURE way to peace and happiness in this life and life hereafter is to serve the Lord today and every day"  Marion G Romney

Who NEW



Heath & dad pulling up the old carpet

I don't know what 2011 will bring but so far we have been enjoying some new experiences. My brother, who, is very talented brought down his tools and some pad, and of course his awesome family all the way from Montana and installed new carpet for us! I knew we picked the right color when Heath told us "it looks like dirt". 

Ria & Dad prepping her room for carpet

It was great to have his family here whenever I am around my sister-in-law I am amazed by her she is so incredible! Chad and I both admit we married above ourselves! The cousins got along pretty good considering there wasn't much to play with because it was all boxed up for the carpet.

Cousins on the carpet

 We did enjoy despicable me a few times "It is so fluffy I'm going to die". Chad worked too hard and too fast, we celebrated Happy Noon Year with them. They took off New Years Eve! I wish they could have stayed longer and we could have done more things with them, they will just have to come back soon!

We had to ring in the New Year with our new carpet, Wii and good friends with little kids it is tricky. We had the Udall's over and we rang in the New Year with New York. Isaac (Spike) got his New Year's kiss!

We made fun drinks and the girls did Cheer's!

New Years day we enjoyed FOOTBALL, friends and food! Our New Years tradition is to measure the kids, to see how much they have grown. Ria is now 4'4" and Heath is now 3'8" Now that Brant and I are done growing up, we still like to see how much we've grown (not physically, that is just depressing). This year I feel like our gratitude and faith have grown the most. Personally resolutions occur for me throughout the year, some weeks are better than others but I'm so grateful to take the sacrament. Hopefully my kids will recognize their growth and strive to grow in other areas and all year as well.

Our New Church time is now at 8 am and we live about 25minutes from the church, Sunday naps are back! I also received a new Church calling, I am now serving in the Young Women's! I was very apprehensive about the time commitment, working with girls and women. I expressed my apprehensions, my lack of talent and all my concerns, why I was nervous, but willing with the Lord. I can say our bishop is truly inspired when I was set apart he addressed all my concerns, I felt so much peace and will be holding to those words of comfort. I'm still nervous but know this is where I'm supposed to be.

Christmas Cram

As a kid December was the longest month ever with the anticipation. I can't believe we crammed all this in and it went by so fast. I am always amazed at what we can accomplish in one month and wish I could keep that pace and be as giving all year.

We had a our Christmas breakfast dinner on Fast Sunday

Bruce & Ria with Christmas Tree Fench Toast

 Of course our festivities included visits with Santa he rode right in fire truck just down the street it was great and a personal little visit. Some recruiting may have been occurring for Heath to join the elves.

We also had the ward Christmas party, it was a great time and the theme was a cowboy Christmas, aren't we cute? (Thanks for the photo's Tera!)

We joined in on some traditions with friends here and did some Caroling at a Nursing home for our 2^nd year.

Singing Friends 

In December we read a Christmas story every night. We also did a little twist to the gift giving this year with Gifts of Gold (something they really want), Frankincense (something that is good for their mind, body or spirit) and Muir (something they need) after a few weeks of drilling this to Heath he asked "which wise man built the house? I was not sure what he was talking about but then I realized he was talking about the wise man and the foolish man song "the wise man built his house upon the rock". He really is a smart kid, I've been celebrating Christmas now for how long and never thought of that!

 We decided to have Christmas in Kanab and miss the night of Bethlehem this year but look forward to it next year, heard the costumes were amazing!

Rianne is very patient with Heath, but after 2 hours she was done with his repetitive and obnoxious behavior, she said "Heath will you please be quiet I have a headache, well I don't actually have a headache but your sounds are annoying me".
We made it in town to take a few family pictures for the Johnson's and spend a little time at the Johnson party. Then we went to Brant's brother Matt's home to put on the nativity read by Grandpa one of my absolute favorite traditions! My camera was still broken so although I tried awkwardly to take some pictures the family was kind enough to share thanks!
I don't know how about wise men more like wise guys!

How about the cutest stable animals ever!

The whole cast (Heath is a shepherd but is trying to herd the horse) He spent most of our time at Christmas being Ironman's dog. Kaleb was of course ironman.

Brant was holding baby Peyton and did volunteer to be Mary I think Ria was a better choice and she did a beautiful job wearing great grandmas shawl, and holding that sweet baby.

After all that who isn't ready to leave out milk and cookies and go to bed! Santa did come and shared his milk with Rudolph, turned it red. The kids were up early as you can tell the sun isn't up yet and we started on the presents I got a new camera and this is my first picture I'm not sure how Heath feels about it J

Have you ever seen a kid get so excited for Nasaline? She asked for her own I think she got more excited for it than the wii, actually I think she was more surprised by the wii Santa brought, excitement came later!

Everybody was happy with their gifts, I was too but had the camera!  



To Brant from Ria 



We went up to open presents with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Jeff! Mary is such a great gift giver. She really knew just what we needed this year, Thank you so much!

Ria got a bedazzler and things to bedazzle and Heath got the batman car he has been begging for since before his birthday! Tayla loved her little purse we gave her. Aren't these the cutest little cousins ever I love Isa's face.

  I think this is so cute Uncle D (Scooby Doo) on the way to Kanab Heath said he hoped he saw Santa again because he wanted to change what he wanted to an ipad (We purposely avoided any contact with the man in red).

He enjoyed using Derek's.

Ria got what she really wanted for Christmas riding horses is her favorite thing in the world (Thanks Wenda & Brittney)

Heath said it best "this has got to be the best day of my entire life" Christmas crammed with all the goodness was a success! Love the gentle reminders we received all month of our Heavenly Father's love for us in the gift of His Son.

Tis’ Bowl Season

We started it out like we do every year, our debate about how many bowl games there are and of course our picks. This Bowl season kick off happened for us in Albuquerque at the New Mexico Bowl. We took the car's odometer to over 200,000 miles and enjoyed watching our nephews who play for BYU. We are glad we made the trip, with BYU going independent I don't know how many games will be close enough to travel to. When picked Ria up from school she had made this for the game, and was sure T would love it.

These are our nephews and their super cute wives Kori and Sara.  I have to admit I was a little nervous to be in the cold with these two girls who always look so cute, they still looked cute but they were still pretty nice to me! 

Kori and Rhen



T and Sara



Brant got Heath a hotdog and put relish on it Heath was complaining, When Brant tried it out he realized it wasn't relish but Jalapenos, (crazy New Mexicans)! It was so hot Heath decided to strip out of his clothes J.

I was very glad I got to watch T snap the ball. (He just started doing that this season). I really like how he adds to the dog pile near the end of the play. It is always a pleasure to watch the Brown boys show emotion and I liked T getting excited with touchdowns picking up little guys and carrying them in celebration.

That Big O line!

It is always great to watch a win! Especially a big one, so Rhen could get in a few more series, which completed the experience for me as he received a random head butt from a UTEP player, kind of funny.

This is us as a group



Heath, Brant, Jana, Rianne, Sara, T, Sara's Mom, (can't remember her name sorry) Kori, Rhen, Robert (Brant's brother) and Nina (the mom) 

This is the BYU group getting their trophy I like that you can see both T #60 and Rhen # 87.

 My bowl picks started out strong but have fizzled hopefully I can pull it out this week, I usually do at least better than Brant with my picks!  Tis the season we love at our house! 

Tooth & Nail

This year we tried to get the kids to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, so we gave 3 specific things they were grateful for, with their 3 candy corns' everyday through the month of November. It was working fine, started to hear a few more specific thank you's in prayers, rather than just "all our many blessings". We also got this conversation:
Heath: I'm grateful for my teeth, the good ones
Rianne: in the friend (magazine) an apostle said we should be grateful for everything, so you should be grateful for your bad teeth too!
Heath: Why?
Rianne: For the experience!
I can tell you I have not felt very grateful for the many trips to the dentist or the cost involved or the dental insurance fiasco or the boy when his teeth are hurting. I didn't enjoy spending more money on the antibiotic because he is allergic to penicillin or the worry I feel for him.
He went in last Monday for round one and as soon as we can work out the insurance we'll do round two!


fitting shirt for the dentist don't you think?

I am grateful for a very tentative dentist, for the technology to do all of this with Heath in as little pain as possible. Especially because I feel so guilty!

  I am grateful that Heath is here. I wish my body would have assimilated him with the calcium he needed for those little teeth. But SO grateful that this seems to be the only real complication from my pregnancy. I'm grateful for that experience that my body could carry him and he was born HEALTHY! I'm grateful for those bad teeth because it reminds me of what a little miracle he is! How grateful I am for the man of faith I am married to!

It also makes me so grateful that Heath is a champ, he is so good to brush and floss, he really does take good care of the pathetic teeth he has. 

remember when he fell asleep flossing (flosser in his mouth)



I am grateful for dentists, for sleepy juice and for a little assistance in financing so much dental work, from more than one source Thank you J   

I am grateful for good teeth & for bad teeth! Grateful for the experience and hope it is over soon!

Sum it up!

In one my many experiences with teenage Sunday school (The absolute best calling in the church). I had a kid telling me about competing in the cipher down (math competitions). He said they got all pumped up, chanting Sum it up, Sum it up! While I don't share his enthusiasm for Math sometimes a good shout is in order just to make you feel better. I have been working on my masters and this fall I was accepted into the psychology program here at NAU and I am officially pursuing a masters in human relations. My dad asked me why human relations I told him it was because they don't offer one in bovine relations, (That's what he has his masters in J).

I was feeling pretty down about this semester and everything I intended to do and didn't. I was enrolled full time and it was probably too much! This has been a very stressful semester but when you SUM it Up. it makes me feel much better!

• all the paperwork to get into my program, because they are no longer offering the masters I was going to pursue, good change just more work.
• I taught a brain processes class in NV for a couple days
• Adoption process which included a conference, fingerprinting etc. (hopefully in January we'll be on line)
• Bought a house & moved in (sort of we can now park in the garage!)
• Brant's crazy travel schedule which included a trip to Alaska. (which left me the majority of the unpacking)
• Being a mom maybe not a good one but still a lot involved in that
• Both my kids had birthdays! And My best friend had one with us too J
• Taught noodle making and Sunday lesson in Relief Society (in addition to my Sunday school calling)
• Took a book of Mormon institute class (so worth it)
• Halloween which involved the sewing of a platypus tail or a friend did. Thanks Annette for the curtains too, and painting the wall,
• Didn't get out thank you cards but I INTEDNED to so I thought of it often, I did, however do my visiting teaching!
• Started an in-home business (it's not going great, I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it)
• Holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas Preparations!
• Heath and his many dentist appointments
• All the Homework, Papers and projects, quizzes etc.
• Still managed to cook dinner a few times, do some loads of laundry, dishes, help Ria with some homework

When you put it all out there, I do see how my burdens have been made light! How stressed I was and that I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but better than expected with all of the above going on and some not listed. I do enjoy the subject matter, for now enjoying the break. Next semester I have statistics, so wish me luck!

Go Grateful

I love a holiday! How about one where you eat yourself sick and watch football for days! It doesn’t get much better!

When we got to Kanab Heath set up a bed for his cousin Caiden (right next to him). Heath loves this crazy boy!

Thanksgiving dinner was so so good. Everybody contributes to that delicious meal! I contributed a few pies for Thanksgiving. I also brought some turkeys with me!

Have I ever mentioned that when I grow up I want to be just like my mother-in-law? She is one of my hero’s and THE best cook!  This wasn't taken on Thanksgivng but it is classic Brown family aroung the table this was on Sunday! 

My kids have the best cousins, I cannot even express my gratitude for those older kids, including my kids, playing with them, loving them and being great examples and teaching them to really value this family they belong to. My kids have no idea how lucky they are but I am so grateful for my wonderful nieces and nephews! Continue being good, so my kids will too! I promise they are watching you!

Heath got a kiss from his cousin Brook



Em's & Ria special hand shake




Ria now and how beautiful she'll be in future too!  



We also got to meet our newest, sweet great nephew (wow that sounds weird). Payton, who as his name indicates LOVES FOOTBALL (Good Boy)  

For Black Friday we left our kids in Kanab and we dressed in white and went to the St. George temple!

Here is the proof that Brant didn’t just watch football all weekend, you won’t find any evidence of me on that one. They went on a little hike.



I did some bonding time with my sister-in-law, Tye! I don’t think I could adequately express how amazing our visit was! No pictures, who looks cute crying and wiping away mascara?



How cute are these turkey's?  I believe they were Tye's idea, Alvin supervised! 

 I have to share this little story: Every grandchild has slid down grandma’s stairs right? Heath was sliding down the stairs on mattresses with Trajen (who is a year younger & a great-grand child). Trajen was trying to pull the mattress up but it was a little too heavy. Heath said: “Trajen say I think I can” Trajen responds timidly with an “I think I can?” Heath pulls out his best, I’m talking to a little kid voice and says: Say it over and over, I think I can I think I can, Trajen repeats it, Heath says: now say it while pulling the mattress. Trajen pulls the mattress to the top of the stairs, repeating I think I can, I think I can. Heath says (again with the voice) You did it Traj! Back to regular voice “Now don’t move a muscle, he climbs on and they make another slide down the stairs!  

We also got to sneak away and visit with the Johnson’s for a while (There is never enough time to be everywhere and do everything). I enjoyed way too much wonderful Pumpkin Pie with the Pumpkin right from Mary & Wenda’s garden and the best nut crust ever! Why did I even type that now I really want some more! Ria loved playing with Tayla, she is getting so big and she is such a smart little stinker too!

I’m grateful we live close enough to GO spend some holidays with family!  Here is Heath as Samuel the Laminite!   

Sam



Now it is time to prepare for Christmas.