Yes, we are still alive!

As you may have noticed, we have been neglecting our blog lately. I can't believe I've let a whole month go by. That means I have a few entries to catch up on.


The biggest and funnest thing we had going on recently was, of course, our Thanksgiving weekend. Since we knew we couldn't leave Provo this time, we were fortunate to have some family come to us (I think it was Megan's great idea...Thank you, Megan!). Mom and Dad Brown and Mark came out from Washington (State) and Angelene came out from Maryland. It was so much fun being able to have them around, and very much a godsend as well.

Matt has taken on a second job in the past couple months as a mentor for troubled teens. He likes it fairly well, but the hours are a bit demanding. Vanessa and I only get to see him Monday and Friday nights, Saturday mornings and a variable amount on Sunday. Despite not seeing each other much, it has been a blessing to us. It is, however, a bit more lonely these days here at home.

I mention this to show how wonderful it was to get to be around so much family while we've still been adjusting to this new schedule. I realized how lonely I had been. It was wonderful to have my sister to hang out with each day as well as my wonderful in-laws who have become as dear to me as my own family. And, despite his schedule, Matt did get to enjoy being around the family a bit, too. Thank goodness for holidays!


So, to catch up on our holidays, I put a few pictures up. Some are just Vanessa, but some are from our Thanksgiving dinner. (By the way, the first one is just typical Vanessa. She has shifted from just being a thumb-sucker, to one who plays with her belly button and sucks her thumb).




During the holiday weekend, Vanessa got sick with a viral infection which gave her pretty bad stomach cramps. Again it was nice to have family around when Matt had to work, because Vanessa needed a blessing, and her "Ma-ga" and "Uncle J" were able to give her a blessing, and everyone came with us to urgent care that night. Thank you for being there!


Grandpa also did a good job being Vanessa's cuddle buddy when Daddy had to be gone. Don't they look so sweet snuggled up together?



Right after everyone hopped back on their planes for home, we got our first snow. Since last year Vanessa was too little, this was her first real experience with "no" (She always leaves off the "s"). I was so excited to show her so I bundled her up and we went outside. She thought it was pretty neat, but kept walking around the snow and never touching it (they had just shoveled the walkways). So I had this bright idea to hold her hand and "lead" her into the snow...





...but one step and she fell right in it, face first. (I wiped the snow off her face before taking this picture). Needless to say, that was the end of our snow excursion. I keep hoping it will snow again so I can get second chance to convince her it really is fun. At least she still likes looking at snow.

Walk to the park

Well, I had part of a post draft saved and I have a little bit of free time, so I thought I'd complete what I could. I've been babysitting for a friend because she had her third child today (Nov. 13th). The dad has just come to pick up his girls, so I'm free to go, except Vanessa is fast asleep. So, I hope you enjoy these pictures from a month ago.

The pictures are fairly self-explanatory. Until just a few days ago we've been having sunny, warm weather. So, while Alena was here, we decided to take Vanessa to the park to enjoy the sun. Enjoy!

Garbage disposal

That's how I feel as I sit down to eat chicken and dumpling soup for the third day in a row. Men with pregnant wives can sympathize with me. Everything that gets cooked and then looks unappetizing to Lisa or Vanessa (which pretty much encompasses every item in the fridge over 2 hours old) either goes to me or the trash can. I can't stand wasting food, so of course, I end up eating it. I keep getting fatter while my girls keep getting skinnier. Hopefully the bun in the oven will be like Mikey the Life cereal kid so he can help me with all these left-overs when he comes out.

Halloween Party

Our ward had its Halloween party last Thursday. Here are some of the pictures from it:



Vanessa found one of her favorite things right away... a "baddoon"!



This is one of Vanessa's little friends, Maddie. She was so cute in her chicken costume, we had to take a picture (her mom was the egg).



Vanessa got to "trick-or-treat" at each of the primary room doors. She liked holding the candy better than putting in her bucket.


Well, okay, what she liked most was eating it! She had a death-grip on this tootsie-pop, and ate most of it (other than the orange drool that fell on her costume).



We tried to coordinate our costumes (as well as go cheap), so I'm a scarecrow, and Matt's a fat farmer (in women's overalls...not mine).



On to the games! The first was a mummy-wrap. This didn't stay on very long!



Another game was a "baby costume race." They split it up into pre-nursery and primary age kids. Vanessa won, hands down, for her group. She was about the only one that wasn't confused or crying. Plus, we stood at the end with Root Beer. At one point, another parent tried to stall her by turning her the wrong direction. All it did was make her want to get to Mommy and Daddy faster! She won a $5 gift certificate to Toys R Us. Yay Vanessa!


What's a Halloween party without eyeball glasses? I love Matt's expression...


and Vanessa's!

Two Peas in a Pod

In case you couldn't already see the family resemblance, here is the spaghetti picture Mom was talking about. Isn't it crazy!

Martha Stewart Dying

So, Lisa had this crazy idea this year to use some templates from Martha Stewart Living for our pumpkins. I was pretty stoked at first, so we recruited a cute little girl to bring the pumpkins inside for us and gut them out. She was pretty upset when she had to go to bed (she was having fun flinging pumpkins guts all over the living room with her spoon). So we got started and things weren't working out like Martha said they would. I was getting pretty upset and said we should let the candles in our pumpkins set fire to the templates, burn down the complex, and sue Martha for all she's worth. In the end, they turned out pretty cool, so Martha's in the clear.

Tennessee Trip (for real) Part One

After stubbornly fighting with Blogger, I finally get my way. So, here is the first part of our trip to Tennessee (& Mississppi). Vanessa and I traveled with Mama (Randolph), My brother, Joel and his wife, Kristina (who had the connections to get us buddy passes, and was kind enough, and brave enough to arrange this crazy week for us...Thank you, Kris! I can't say it enough) and their girls Ashley (3) and Katie (15 mo).This first picture is of Ashley, Katie, and Vanessa before the very first flight of the trip. This is when they were actually excited about the planes. It was very cute!

We then arrived at my Uncle Mike's house (My dad's brother). He is actually currently living with my (former) Aunt Ann and her husband Spencer. They live about a half hour away from Memphis, TN in a beautiful little place called Byhalia in MS. This picture is taken outside their house. Uncle Mike and Ashley are holding Schnauzer puppies.



One of the most distinguishing features of this home is that it is a "little heaven" for little girls. Particularly because there are so many animals that the girls can pet and play with. There are probably 5 or 6 big outside dogs, and then about 5 or so poodles inside, a chihuahua, and of course the schnauzer family. In addition to those there are 23 cats inside a special room added on to the house, 2 cats in kennels (ones that can't be near the others temporarily), and then I think another 5 that roam the house. Oh, and there's a canary, a frog, and some fish. The most amazing thing is that all the animals are well trained to be good and gentle (they stay in certain places if they don't behave), and they are all very well taken care of (Ann's family ought to be paid for all the love and care they give these sweet animals). So you can imagine why the girls loved it so much. (Of course they just loved all the great people there, too!)

This plaque sits just outside the cat room. How appropriate!



Here's a couple shots of the cat room. Mom (Brown), I thought you'd get a kick out of this!
The second picture shows how Vanessa's favorite word/sound was "meow" (or "melow" as she says it).




On this trip Vanessa discovered the joys of sleeping on pillows. She was missing her daddy a lot, and I guess this and her Uncle Joel helped a lot.

These picture are taken on the front porch. It was fairly warm but the porch swings made it pretty nice to be outside.

Vanessa got a chance to "explore the forest" in front of Uncle Mike's house. It was just so pretty out there I had to show this picture.

Before we left for the other leg of our trip, Uncle Mike served us one of his specialties: Spaghetti (trust me, it's no ordinary spaghetti. Even nauseous pregnant women enjoy it).

As you can see, Vanessa devoured it with gusto. I think Uncle Mike has the special touch when it comes to food. She even ate the scrambled eggs he made one morning (she never eats eggs, ever!). By the way, I think this is my favorite picture of her now. Don't you just love that messy grin?

While we still in this area, we got to meet Uncle Mike's sister Sharon (he is technically Papa's half brother through their dad and this is his half sister through Uncle Mike's mom). She is such a sweet lady, and she was very accomodating to tired, hungry traveler's and their kids (okay, I threw in hungry, because I'm always hungry). It was great to meet her, and I'm glad that the two of them ended up so close to each other.

We also got to see almost all our Uncle David's kids (Ann's girls). My cousin Steve lives in another state, but I got to see all five of the girls. They were so nice. I wish I knew them better and had more time to visit with them. Since that visit, my cousin Holly had a baby girl. Congratulations, Holly! Maybe we'll get to visit again someday when Matt can come with us.

It was so good to see Uncle Mike again. He is the uncle I know best since he would come and visit anytime his truck routes would take him over our way. Thank you, Uncle Mike, for letting us come and treating us like royalty while we were there. Vanessa sure loved you (and I'm pretty sure the other little girls did, too). I hope it won't be so long until the next time we see you.

Well, that's only half of the trip. I will see if I can get pictures from Mama for the rest. There were a lot of great pictures I missed because of being tired and sick half the time (although now I wished I had just sucked it up and grabbed my camera anyway). Stay tuned for more!

Tennessee Trip (well, not really)

So I have been trying to create this post for a week or more. Nothing doing. Last week was a bit insane, considering we had to move everything out of our kitchen & bathroom for the pest control guy to come fumigate. Then I got to play catch up on getting the house back in order and all the Relief Society stuff I haven't been able to get to. That was slowed down by my nausea and fatigue from pushing too hard with my schedule already. So the few times I have attempted to post have not been very successful. Now that I have a spare moment, Blogger won't let me load pictures. Stupid Blogger! The stories aren't as fun without the pictures. I will try later, but if you want to know about the trip in the meantime, just call or e-mail me. I know those will work!

Okay, so sorry about the griping. I think I just need a break from the computer. Talk to you all soon.

A Change of Pace

Well, I officially completed my first marathon. My time was 4 hours 45 minutes, and I can't remember how many seconds. Much to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. The people of St. George were incredible. Thousands of people came out just to cheer everyone on and provided much needed words of encouragement. Here is a break-down of the day:

3:45 am: Woke up and got ready

4:30 am: Lisa drove my friend Brad, his wife Cassie and I to the registration building.

4:45 am: I fell into some sort of manhole as we were heading to the bus and bruised the crap out of my shin (I thought I was done for)

5:00 am: We got on a bus that took us to the starting point. I sat next to a lady named Stacy who was also running her first marathon. We talked about a lot of concerns and how happy we would be when we got done.

5:30 am: We arrived at the starting point and joined the other 5,100 runners that were competing. It was an awesome site to see. We all huddled around about 20 bonfires to keep warm and stretch out.

6:45 am: Start time! 5,100 runners charged out of the starting gate whooping and hollering. It felt like a fight scene from Braveheart. It was really cool!

9:04 am: Hit the halfway point (13.1 miles).

11:30 am: Gave Vanessa a kiss on the sidelines and crossed the finish line (26.2 miles).

It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment and pain. I was able to run during the whole race, excluding about 3/4 of a mile where I had to walk. I was amazed at how hard-core and intense some of the runners were. Here are some interesting things I saw:

1) A man sticking his vaseline covered hand right up his butt before the race. To be honest, I wish I had done the same.

2) A 60 year-old lady's bare butt as she squatted next to a honey bucket (she didn't want to waste time waiting for an available toilet).

While I was training, I swore countless times that I would never run after this was over (needless to say, I would never do another marathon). Despite the rush of crossing the finish line, my feelings remained the same right after the race. But I have to admit, my feelings have now changed. It was by far one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. There's just something about being around so many people from so many places all sharing the same goal. It was truly a life-changing experience. As of right now, I hope to do it again next year. I would also like to compete in some smaller runs to be better prepared. Here are some pictures of the race. Sorry there are so few, but it was impossible for me to have the camera with me.

Before the race

Me about 100 yards from the finish line

Me, Brad, and Cassie after the race

Lisa putting up with my stench (she has a pregnant nose)

Vanessa got really tired watching people cross the finish line

So Vanessa has some very important news...

16 days, 21 hours, 14 minutes, 31 seconds...

...until the big day. Here's a little update on what we're up to.

Matt:
Still training for the marathon. We (My friend, his wife, and I) ran 20 miles last Saturday in just under 4 hours. The last three miles were especially choice, as we were pelted by a crazy hail storm. The marathon is 26.2 miles, but a lot of downhill. I'm also starting to fill out my applications. I'm applying to 10 schools, but feel pretty confident that we'll end up at BYU. I've been doing everything I can to establish relationships with some faculty here, which included paying $800.00 to audit a class this semester (it better be a sweet class), so hopefully that will pay off.

Lisa:
Staying out all night with the girls. . . making cookies and delivering them to every sister in the ward. She was out until 2 am the other night! She has been staying really busy and doing a great job in her calling. I've really enjoyed watching her learn and grow so much spiritually, even though that means I've been left even further behind in the spiritual dust. She amazes me! Even with all the responsibilities she has at church, she still does an awesome job running the household (especially with Vanessa).

Vanessa:
Still jabbering non-stop. Her new words include "poop" (she raises her hands in the air and says "poop" now when she fills her diaper), "meow" (it's more like "melow"), "bottle", and "belly" (sounds like be-yee, that's her word for her belly button). She has also kind of learned to eat with a fork. Most of the time we have to stick the food on the fork and she puts it in her mouth, but it keeps her entertained long enough to finish a meal. Last night we framed a picture of Jesus for her room and let her hold it for a while. She just sat there for like ten minutes talking to it and kissing it. We got it on tape, so I'm going to try and format it so I can e-mail it. We love her so much and love watching her grow and learn

Addendum to Vanessa pictures

If anyone would like any of these one-year photos let us know. We purchased the CD this time so we could produce as many copies as we want. Just let us know which one(s) by indicating a number (top one on the blog would be #1, the second down from the top would be #2, and so on) and indicate what size (we can do up to a 5x7 before we lose resolution quality). You can let us know through blog comment, e-mail, or phone.

We love you all and we hope you've enjoyed these entries!

Vanessa's one-year pictures

Here are the pictures we had taken of Vanessa before vacation. Keep scrolling to see stuff from our vacation and return home.