Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve at ET & Kristin's with the

Glenns and Grandma and Grandpa.

We had a great program that ET organized.

The kids acted out the nativity

Katie Cassidy and Kimberly were angels

Bennett was a shepherd

The cast

Some of the grandchildren played the piano

as we sang along

Grandpa and Grandma shared a Christmas Story

and their testimonies.

We ended the evening with the traditional Gift Exchange Game,

Abby was a bit sad that Haley "stole" the necklace from her

and Yahtzee was what she ended up with.

She was such a good sport!

It was a wonderful evening and we loved being with our loved ones!

Brown Family Christmas Party

The annual Brown Family Christmas Party was a success!

There were about 70 people in attendance for the

soup and salad buffet and the much anticipated

Gift Exchange Game.

The boys were able to talk sports!

All the cousins loved being together...

Bella and Lucy

Curt is sooo baby hungry!

Lyla, Curt and Tia

Casslyn and Reagan

Alisa, Corbin and Blake

Love all these cuties!

Bennett and Naaman

One of the most coveted gifts of the night.

Matt & Celeste were the lucky winners!

Grandma & Mel so excited to receive from all the kids

season tickets to the Hale Theatre!

Christmas Service

Since we were not going to Mexico this year to build houses,

we did a family service project with the

Cowley's, Allens and Stewarts.

We helped clean up an elderly couple's yard.

There were lots of weeds to whack...



All these muscles were put to good use

filling this dump truck to the top.

Clark, Bennett, Jason, Cannon

Haley, Ashlyn and Kadyn added a

Christmas touch with some lights

The boys were intriguied with Van's tales

and were fascinated with his cat "Patches" that

he has saved over the years...

We wanted to help bury "Patches", but Van declined and wanted

to keep him just as he was!

It was a rewarding activity and it was fun to be with

great friends.

Brown Family Christmas Caroling

We had a great time caroling with the

 Brown and Stradling Families.

  Thanks to Uncle Chuck for making it all come together!

Matt, Celeste, Madison and Jace

Bruce and Cindy

Austin and Cassidy

Ally, Daniel, and Courtney

Jace, Isaac and Clark

Grandma and Curt

Isaac and Haley

Birthdays

Bennett turned 13 on December 6th!

My baby is a teenager!

He wanted to take some of his friends
 to Jamba Juice before school.

Sophie, Wilson, Hunter, Carson and Bennett

Haley turned 18 on December 10th.

We now have more legal adults in the house than children!

We served 9 feet of subsandwiches, chips and scotcheroos

to this fun bunch and not a drop was left!

Tia turned 21 on December 12th.

We have given up on getting a picture of her with her eyes OPEN!

(She swears it is the way my camera flashes)

Her birthday was on a Sunday, so we had the meal of her choice...

pork roast, twice baked potatoes, rolls,
roasted veggies and cheesecake.

I also celebrated my birthday on the 17th.

Curt took me to lunch, I ate left over cheesecake
 and loved the flowers

that were a wonderful surprise from Curt.

No pictures of the old folks!

Winter Formal

Tonight was Mountain View's Winter Formal Dance.

Cassidy looked gorgeous!

Bennett and Wilson gave Cassidy a "send off kiss"!

 Cassidy and Katie were in the same group.

Last week was the day activity of a Paint War and tonight started with pictures, dinner at Golden Gate, the dance and the night activity watching "Elf" and eating cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.

Love these girls!

 

Cassidy and her date Blake

Since they had a little time before the dance started, part of Cassidy's group surprised us and stopped by the open house. 
Here they are with the Bride and Groom!

Cassidy, Blake, Mel, Charlene, Katie, Stevie, Brianne, Nick



Meet the Stradlings!

You have never seen a more giddy bride than Grandma Brown was this morning after being married to Melvin Stradling.  Grandpa Clark performed a beautiful marriage ceremony in the Mesa Temple surrounded by a room full of children, grandchildren and siblings.  We are so happy for them and are excited to have Mel join the family!

 Mel and his wife Virginia have a beautiful family of 7 children that Grandma now gets to be a part of.  We have enjoyed getting to know Mel and his children over the past several weeks and they are a great bunch of people!

 Mel and Grandma hosted a fun open house for family and friends.

All our love and best wishes for many happy years to come!

November

Bennett, Curt, and Clark hiked to Reavis Ranch

with the Scouts in the ward.

They had to pack their gear 14 miles round trip.  I cheated and packed them Panda Express for their dinner and a Filiberto's burrito for breakfast.  They needed some kind of motivation since

Clark accused me of "ruining his life" by making him go on the outing instead being able to

hang out on a Friday Night.

Clark ran the 10K Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning and placed 2nd in his age group and 38th overall with a time of 38:44. 

Kristin and E.T. hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner.

We had a nice program before dinner where we sang "Prayer of Thanksgiving" and everyone shared what they were thankful for...

home, family, temples, education, seminary,
good friends, and the gospel

were what our family was thankful for this year.

Katie, Samantha, Carie

Clark and Cassidy

Haley and Tia

 It was fun to have Grandma Geri with us again this year!

The "teen table"

Max loading up on the delicious food!

Saying good-bye to Grandma Geri.

We also celebrated Cassidy's 17th Birthday.  It wasn't the best birthday on record considering she was really sick and wasn't even up for cake.  Sadly, no pictures of the day!

We also celebrated Curt's 47th Birthday!

Man, are we getting old!