Moments of Happiness

Finding lady bugs and frogs in the backyard

 Followed by wrestling around in the grass on warm sunny days.

 Waking up to cool breezes and the sound of these little birdies coming through our window.

 Movie nights where we get cozy and eat popcorn (and yes I was too lazy to edit out the red eye)

 Picnics in the backyard, even when its not that sunny out.

Peeks at a cute sleeping boy. Mmmm. I just want to smoosh him.

 BBQ's on the grill. Check out this DIVINE recipe at my new favorite food blog.

 Enjoying the sunshine. Need I say more?

 I just found this picture on our camera. And it made me so happy. Its so not like Jaron to do pics like this, but I love that he did, because I think its cute. I love these boys.

 This is my number one favorite happy moment of the last month. Watching a tender older sis love on her little aching brother, who was being tormented with hand foot and mouth disease. What a sweet older sissie.

 A fun and creative little girl wanting to create a crown that will wow you for an art project during quiet time. Its bigger than her face.

 

Almost nothing makes me happier than when my four year old comes in with a handpicked bouquet of fresh wild flowers, immersed in her love, and says "I picked these for you Mom".  

 A fun renovation of some old hand me down dressers that were once wood colored. Now they are painted white, as you can see, with fun little red knobbies that I found at Ikea for $1.99.

And alas. Happy Saturday mornings with a newly created tradition from Jaron, which entails pancakes that are colorful with lots of butter and syrup.

What happy moments have you had lately?

Filling up the pool in the backyard on a sunny day

Family Recital Performance May 2011

Family Recital May 2011 from Jessica Brown on Vimeo.

Foundation House Performance May 2011

Untitled from Jessica Brown on Vimeo.

I made a mistake. The first song is not Go Tell Aunt Rhody, it is Lightly Row.

A Blog About the Chillins

Olivia:

(Side note on the dress-it was a dress that I wore when I was a little girl that my aunt made, and has now been worn by me, two of nieces, and now my own daughter). 

Olivia has always called hang nails tags. I think it is a very fitting name for the annoying hang nail that sticks out of our cuticles, and I just wanted to put that down in writing so that I can remember it. 

Almost everyday for the past week, at some point in the day Olivia will say to me, "Bye mom, I'm going to the garden of eve" and then  she will crawl into her little princess tent and hide out for awhile.

If there is one main characteristic I could name for Olivia since she turned four, I would say that she is inquisitive. It is so fun to hear her questions, and have great conversations with her. Today she said "Mom, how did Heavenly Father make the sky?" 

Of course there are times, when I find the inquisitiveness not so good: "But, how did the baby get inside of you?" Uh. . . 


Liv is a great helper! I almost have her completely trained to put on a diaper, per her request. If she gets this down, I will be one happy momma. 

Today I said, "Liv will you help me bring in some groceries from the car"?, and she said happily, "Sure. I can carry the light stuff. I like helping you mom".  


Sometimes she even brings peace when contention is here. Don't get me wrong, sometimes she is playing a part, or instigating the contention, but today well here is what happened. I was trying to get Warner dressed, and he was giving me a stink about it, kicking my belly, and wailing and flailing around like a wild baboon. After one too many kicks in the belly, I just finally held him still until I got his clothes on him. He didn't appreciate that and started yelling at me. I gave up trying to reason with him and walked downstairs to eat breakfast by myself in peace. As I was eating my bowl of cereal I could hear Olivia talking softly to Warner upstairs.  A few minutes later I heard them walk down the stairs, and saw them round the corner. Liv was walking slowly, side by side with Warner, whose head was hung low, eyes doey and humble, and she had her hand in the small of his back and was urging him towards me. She then said "Warner, do you want to say something to mom"?  "Sowwey" he said. "I nice".  Then Liv translated what I already understood Warner had said: "Mom, Warner is really sorry and he is ready to be nice now".  It was so cute. I almost shed a tear. 

I am loving this stage of life that we are coming into with our kids. Liv and Warner are quite the little play mates, and they really have fun together. Liv sometimes understands what Warner is saying when we don't, and when she clarifies, he is always so grateful. 

In the back of the van they can usually be found playing I spy, or I'm thinking of an animal.  It usually goes something like this:

Warner always instigates the playing of the game by saying out of the blue "Your turn Olivia".

To which Liv will say, "Ok. Warner I'm thinking of an animal that swings in the trees and goes ooo ooo aaa aaa". 

Then, Warner will say "Isssssiittt curious geg (curious george)?".

Then, Liv will say "Yes! You got it Warner"!, with as much enthusiasm and pride in her younger brother that she can muster out.

Then, Warner will say "Awesssum". 

And they will do this over and over with either Curious George or a snake as the animal.  It rarely varies, unless Jaron and I are included in the game and try to get them to think a little more outside the box. 

Warner: 

Warner sings and sings and sings some more. He sings until he falls asleep and he sings when he wakes up. It is the sweetest thing. If you came to our house, you would probably have a hard time deciphering what he was singing, because he has his own rhythm and says words in his own way, and skips big parts of songs, and sometimes combines two or three songs together. But we can always identify parts of songs here and there. He also likes to use vibrato lately. I'll have to just record it sometime, because its absolutely hilarious.

Warner is so dang friendly. I remember Liv being pretty friendly at this age too, but man does Warner love people! He is going to be a great missionary one day.  It doesn't matter who it is, be it a homeless bum on the side of the road, or a friendly relative, Warner always says hi and goodbye and can't end any conversation without saying "I wuv you bewwy much!".  

Speaking of "I wuv you bewwy much", it is his new routine when tucking him in bed to say "Bye". "Bye", we say. Then he'll say "I wuv you mos".  "I love you most", we say.  Then he'll say "I wuv you bewwy much".  "I love you very much", we will say in return.  Sometimes, even after we have closed the door and are down the stairs, we can still hear him shouting from his crib "I wuv you mos! I wuv you bewwy much!"

Another favorite thing about the Warbird that I'm just loving lately  is the cute little look he gets on his face when I get him dressed for church. I will get him in his little suit. Then, I will take him into my bathroom and let him stand on the counter while I comb and wet down his hair.  When I'm all finished with him, he will look in the mirror at himself, get this powdered little look where he is sort of smiling, but sort of trying not to smile, and he will look at me and say "Hi".  I love it. "Warner, you are such a handsome boy!", I will say. Then, he will look back in the mirror at himself, then, back at me and say "hi" again, with the same little powdered look. Ah it makes me want to go wake him up and smoosh him. :)

Another Warnerism lately is the phrase "Catch em".  He says it for everything. If he wants us to hold him he'll say "Catch em".  If he wants something to be passed to him that he can't reach he'll say "Catch em".  If he wants us to see something out the window he'll say "Catch em!".  Today Warner was whining about something and Jaron looked down at him and said "What do you need boy?" "Catch em" is all he said.  Its his all encompassing phrase.  I love it. 

Baby Brown:

35 Weeks Pregnant

Well there is not too much to say about Baby Boy Brown number two, other than the fact that he sometimes does flips in my belly, and is creating a great deal of heart burn for me. In spite, of those two things, I already love him dearly and we are all excited to meet whatever new spirit heavenly father has decided will be a part of our little family. Other than the first trimester, this has been quite a dreamy pregnancy. I feel healthy and good. I have enough energy to do what I need to do, and I don't feel too ancy yet to have this baby out. I mean really who would when you can still enjoy a good 10 hours of sleep a night? On Thursday I'm going to start a prenatal water aerobics class with a bunch of other pregnant women. I'm really excited, especially because I heard that they have a hot tub that is safe for pregnant ladies to sit in after the class. Wahoo! Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law I even have a cute maternity swimsuit to wear! 


Alright this post is a novel. And now I'm babbling. I probably won't do another post for awhile, so you can just re-read this one again and again.  . . . Just kidding. 

A Late Easter Blog

Easter weekend was exciting this year. We spent Saturday on a train ride to Portland and drove back in a new van. Wahoo. Why I was ever hesitant about buying such a beautifully perfect vehicle I do not know. I'm in love. The train ride was totally awesome. The kids loved it, and it was the fastest three hours of travel we have ever done, which means it was fun. The three hours we spent at the dealership however with the kids. . . not so fun. Especially considering the fact that in that three hours the kids missed their lunch and their naps. Not good. This cute little blond girl that was trying to help us through the whole process looked at me at the very end of it all and said "See that didn't take so long did it?" all I could do was look at her in unbelief. I like to be friendly at all times, but I'm afraid the car dealership had sucked out ever last bit of friendly energy I could muster. Clearly she doesn't have children. 

On Easter Sunday, the kids woke up and looked for baskets. That was an Easter tradition in my house growing up, and we always loved it. It was so fun to find our Easter baskets full of treats. Our kids enjoyed it so much.  What kid doesn't enjoy waking up and finding a basket full of treats?

My cousin Leslie and her little family came and joined us this year for Easter, which was so fun. We ate a yummy dinner, had a spiritual message given to us by the girls (which was so cute, and I was very impressed with their knowledge of the atonement and the resurrection), then we had an Easter egg hunt. 

Liv decided she needed to put on her Cinderella dress to help her find eggs. It must be good luck or something.

Oh yea, and those thumbprint cookies that I made, well uh hee, it turns out no body around here has an appreciation for anise-flavored frosting quite like I do, so um. . . well. . . how should I say this, ok I'll just say it, I ate them all! It took me a couple of weeks, but a few cookies a day and pretty soon the whole pot is gone. Wow. Can't believe I just admited that to the world wide web.

How was your Easter?