Saturday, December 25, 2010

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!


Thursday, December 23, 2010

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!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

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.

Friday, December 17, 2010

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!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

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!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

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!