Two Fun Things This Week

For our Monday family night (Family Home Evening)we talked about service and how we can show love for Christ through serving others. Alan came up with a great idea for our activity. He suggested that we go and serve the elderly lady at the end of our street by raking the leaves in her yard. It was a great learning moment for our children and I can't express my joy when they commented about it later that week.
There is so much joy to be found in service!

Our stake, combined with another stake put on "A Night On Broadway" A Tapestry of Musical Theater for our community. I was able to perform in a group that sang a medley of songs from the Music Man and also sang a solo, "Good Night My Someone". I had forgotten how fun performing on stage can be. It was extremely nostalgic for me!

Our Little Bouncer

Amanda has found a new love....bouncing! She loves to be in her bouncer that hangs in the kitchen doorway and I love it because I can keep an eye on her when I'm cooking. Now that she can crawl she picks up everything that is on the floor (that includes a variety of sizes ranging from large to very tiny) and puts it in her mouth. I'd like to use her as our new vacuum, since she can pick up the tiniest pieces off the floor, but unfortunately they can also be a big choking hazard. So, needless to say vacuuming and sweeping the floor has risen to a new level of importance in our home.

What a week!

Yes, this was some week. We enjoyed everything from strep throat to Trick-or-treating! I'll let the pictures tell the story.
Grace sick on the couch with strep throat on Monday. Ashton came down with it on Wed.

Celebrating Mom Brown's birthday (Oct.25th) with homemade ice cream. We made Tuna Gravy over toast for dinner, watched her video that Kris put together for her funeral, took a quiz of Grandma and Grandpa's favorites based on a videotaped interview Alan had put together 7 months before her passing, and ate homemade ice cream. Thomas and Katie were able to join us for the festivities!

Started our pumpkin carving on Thursday:) Uncle Thomas joined us for the fun!

Uncle Thomas brought the power tools:)We have now been exposed to a whole new world of pumpkin carving.


The Finished Product! Way to go Grace and Ashton!

Abbie attended a fun Halloween party. She is eating a "mummy dog". How cute is that?!

Here are our very tired Trick-or-Treaters, although we actually didn't trick-or-treat this year, after a late night on Friday attending a Halloween Carnival at a friend's church.
There isn't much more a princess, basketball player, black cat, and pumpkin could ask for. Here is to a very busy week!

2 Surprises

Amanda gave us two surprises today and I will post pictures and video soon about this. First, we found two little teeth poking out of her bottom gums today and second, she crawled tonight for the first time! Hurray, Amanda! I tried to upload the video of it, but it didn't work so I will try again tomorrow.

October 14th

Happy Birthday Ashton! Our little guy is not so little anymore. He turned 5 on Thursday and enjoyed breakfast in bed (For him it was breakfast in bed on the floor, since he now finds sleeping on the floor in a makeshift bed a lot more enjoyable?!).As a tradition the birthday person gets to have their favorite meal for dinner and his was chicken alfredo and streamed broccoli. Instead of cake we had brownie sundaes. Yummy!

He chose to have waffles with cool whip and blueberries on top and scrambled eggs for his special meal in bed. Delicious!

The Equestrian Games

The Equestrian Games have come to Kentucky! We have been trying to figure out how we can have this once in a life time experience on a very lean budget (i.e. because I'm taking one grad class this semester and that has basically zapped our finances). Well, our daughter, Grace, helped us out:) She won two grounds tickets to the Equestrian Games at school by winning a writing contest. HURRAY for our amazing Grace!
Since kids are free that made it perfect for our little family to attend. Unfortunately, tragedy hit and I (Andrea) got sick so daddy took Grace and Ashton to have this once in a life time opportunity and I stayed home with the two youngest who were getting over their sickness. Sometimes life gives you lemons, so you just have to make lemonade (actually hot lemon tea for my really bad cold).

Amanda Sits Up By Herself

We are so proud of our growing girl! She sits up all by herself:)You can also see her new accessory in this picture, her hearing aid. She just got it a few weeks ago. For Amanda it is a multi-faceted instrument. On one hand it helps her with her minor hearing loss in the left ear, but on the other hand it makes a great chew toy:)

Grace's Birthday

Grace enjoyed a wonderful birthday this past week thanks to good friends! The party consisted of just a couple of girls. We decided to keep it small and not have a big party every year. The girls were able to decorate their own headbands, paint their nails, make mini pizzas, and enjoy brownie sundaes for the birthday treat. She now is seven years old:) WOW, I feel sooooo old! I can't believe how quickly life flies by.

Labor Day

We were able to enjoy a fun filled Labor Day with my brother and sister-in-law, who are now living in the same city as us:) Hurray for having family close! We love it!
They were house sitting for some family members during the Labor Day weekend and so they invited us up to hang out. While we were there we got to enjoy riding horses, taking a canoe ride, paddle boating, sitting in the hot tub under the stars, petting dogs (five to be exact)and barbecuing. The kids loved it!

While My Mom Was Here

With all the company there was lots of bedding. The kids enjoyed a mountain of mattresses which we called our Princess and the Pea moment.
The kids engaging their grandpas in one of their "projects"..
Grandpa and Josie came for Amanda's baby blessing.
The kids enjoyed doing a community Easter Egg Hunt with the grandparents.
Grandma gave the kids haircuts and Grace decided she wanted to work on a project at the same time.
A little bit of trampoline fun with Grandma.
Abbie turned 2 years old!


We celebrated Saint Patrick's Day. Grandma picked the kids up from the bus with a little bit of Patty Day flair:)

Just a few more:)

Grandma and Amanda. My mom came out to help me with the arrival of Amanda and was able to stay for four weeks. It was WONDERFUL! Our family loved having her.

Too Cute!

Once again time has gotten away from me and also sleep for that matter. I'm finally able to post these adorable pictures that were taken by my good friend, Melanie. She amazes me with her talents! Amanda was three weeks old in these pictures. She is now seven weeks. I just think these are too cute!!

It's A ....

Our new arrival has joined us! Alan has known the gender of this little one since the fifth month and has kept it a secret through the whole pregnancy, as I did not want to know until delivery. Way to go Alan! So, for all those who have been waiting to hear...we had a.....................girl. Her name is Amanda Sidney, named after two great women in our family who we hope she will draw inspiration from through out her life. She was 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 20 in. long.

Her cute hat bow the nurses made for her in the hospital when she was born.





Proud Grandma