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Hello to all my faithful readers (and those who stumbled in to my blog by mistake and have nothing better to do)! It's that time of year again, when I become one big ball of stress. I'm working on my Christmas cards, and if you want one I need your address. If you like privacy as much as I do, please feel free to email it to me at kimbrown22@gmail.com or send it to me as a message on Facebook. Also, if you want my address for your Christmas list, please let me know. Thanks for your help! I'll try to post some fun Thanksgiving pictures this week, but don't hold your breath!

Party On!

We just celebrated Mollie and Brett's birthdays, with very different celebrations. For Mollie we had a "Fancy Nancy"-esque tea partyWe invited 2 of her little friends to come and bring their moms

of course they had to wear their fanciest attire!

Here's the group sitting down to "tea" (little sandwiches, fruit & pink lemonade)

we played a fun dress up game, where everyone won a tu-tu

these were the goody bags, filled with hair clips nail polish and sunglasses

fancy place settings (Grandma B made the butterfly placemats)

doesn't the table look nice? what yummy cupcakes!Daddy's celebration was quite a bit different. He had 2 special dinners and here he is blowing out the candles on his pumpkin cake. Madi was a great little helper!

Hallo-week

Last week was great. We packed all kinds of Halloween festivities into the week, including the acquisition of dumptruck loads of candy. I think we'll be working on this candy for years! Some of the fun activities included... (warning, there are a ton of pictures in this post)a fun Halloween dinner with Vampire blood, apple bites and of course

Mummy dogs!

a playgroup costume party complete with trick-or-treating

cookie decorating and delivering

Madi even got in on the frosting fun!

spooky story time

here are the kids in all their finery: a cheerleader, a clone trooper and Jessie the yodeling cowgirl (if this costume looks familiar, you're right! I made a red yarn wig to change it up a little, but she wouldn't wear it. boo hoo.)

They had a great time trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, then we headed over to the church for some trunk-or-treating action. Madi loved putting the candy in her little bag and wouldn't move on until it was safely secured. So funny!

Just in case you needed more, here's another cute picture of my little monsters! Hey, did I mention that Kody won a costume contest at a little festival we went to? I'm glad, because Grandma B and I worked real hard on getting his costume just right. What was the prize you ask? More candy! I hope you all had a great Halloween, because we did!

Movie Monday

For your entertainment, here's a classic Madi video clip, circa sometime after Christmas and before we moved. Hope you get a bit of a smile from her laugh!

Happy Monday

Fall Field Trip

Kody had his first kindergarten field trip on Friday, and Mollie and I were lucky enough to be there with him! Where else do you go on a field trip in October besides a pumpkin patch? This was at the high school (yes, as it turns out they are pretty big into farming around here), and the high school students took the kids around to a few different stations:First, of course, was the hayride...

then lots of animals to pet and smell...

craft projects involving real sheep hair...

storytime, where they learned all about pumpkins...

planting pumpkin seeds (do you think anything will grow?)...

and last but not least, they got to bring home their own baby pumpkins!

Character

They say scars give you "character". Now both my girls have some great character.

Mollie got her character in May while visiting Grandma & Grandpa D,and poor Madi just got hers yesterday at Grandpa & Grandpa B's.

Can you see the blood highlights in her hair? Poor kids, they were both troopers. I wasn't able to be with Mollie when she had her accident, so while I was in the E.R. with Madi I just couldn't help but think of what my poor mom went through comforting Mollie all the while trying to stay strong herself. I broke down a little, but tried to remain calm for Madi. If it wasn't for my awesome mother in law, I'm pretty sure I would have just fallen apart. Thanks Moms!

Help me win!

One of the blogs I follow is having a giveaway of her newest dress pattern and I must have it! Go here, and you can see the cuteness. Wish me luck!

Pretty Little Schoolgirl

Mollie has started preschool now, and she loves it! We are just doing a little group with some of the kids in church and they meet once a week for about an hour and a half. Perfect! They are working on letters and numbers, and they do a cute show and tell each week. Mollie loves having her own little school to go to.first day of school - the gratuitous front door shot

journal writing

what a little supermodel!

Kindergarten (I only cried a little)

We survived the first week of Kindergarten!

Kody was a little nervous on the first day, but has overcome his fears and absolutely loves his new school!

He has a great teacher, Mrs. R, who has been teaching Kinder for quite a while and just loves these little ones. She is so sweet! Day one was this past Monday, and it was just an hour to help the children get familiarized with the teacher and class. Parents stayed, so you can imagine it was a little crazy.We only live about a half mile from the school, so we have been walking him to and from school.Here he is with the school mascot.This picture is for Grandma B, otherwise known as the Frog Grandma!

Yesterday when I got to the school to pick him up I noticed this red stuff all over his shorts. Mrs. R assured me it wasn't blood, just frosting from the birthday cupcakes that his classmate brought. Seriously folks, who brings cupcakes with RED frosting to a kindergarten class?!? Apparently, Kody had some fun with the red frosting and covered himself from head to toe. In the picture, I had already started to douse the stains with my trusty stain remover (thanks Chel, it works like a dream!) when I decided to take a picture for posterity. So no, that's not blood and pee on his shorts! And would you believe, it all came out!

Yosemite National Park

On Saturday morning we headed out bright and early for Yosemite National Park. Yay!

It was so beautiful, I'm always amazed at the wonders that our Heavenly Father created for us.The kids were all little troopers too, which made the trip even more special! The park was very crowded, but we managed to find our way to a few secluded areas. We had so much fun "hiking" around and getting dirty,and the favorite activity of the day was throwing big rocks into the river.

So many people thought Madi was a boy that I've decided to fight her to fix her hair anytime we go out. Any suggestions?

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Or something like that! Okay, I have a hard time coming up with new and interesting titles. Miss Mollie got a haircut this weekend! I've been thinking about it for a while now, and finally bit the bullet. I was getting a trim anyway, so Mollie tagged along and got a new big girl haircut.She was so brave and good, I'm sure she was a little nervous.

Now she wants it even shorter, like her friend Maggie, but I have my limits. One step at a time!

Isn't she so cute?? Thanks Amy, we love our hair!

Summer Recap

I know, I've been silent all summer. I'm sorry, I don't really have any excuses. So what have we been up to? A little of this, and a little of that. We are in Central California trying to find ways to beat this heat while looking for employment. What's that you say? You thought we had a job? That's right, we did. Unfortunately, the guy Brett was supposed to work with gave us the old "it's not you, it's me" spiel and said he's not ready to commit. So it was back to the pavement. We do have a couple things we're working on, but I don't want to speak too soon. I'll let you know as soon as Brett signs on the dotted line. In the mean time, we have been so lucky to have more time to spend with Brett's parents. It has been fun to catch up with them since they got home from the mission. Kody is instructing them in the finer art of Mario Kart, Mollie is teaching them all about how to be a little girl and Madi is giving them plenty of exercise. We made a quick trip to Utah and spent the 4th of July with my family. The kids had a great time with all their cousins and I loved spending quality time with my sisters. We even got to visit with some friends who happened to be there too! I've put together a slide show so you can see a little of what we've been up to, and I'm working on a few ideas to keep my blog going on a more regular basis. Until then, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show!

The Other Grad

Kody had his preschool "gradutaion" on the same night as Brett, so we were lucky that some good friends who have a daughter in the same class took him along with them. Thanks "G" family! Here are some pictures they took that night for us.

Kody has really enjoyed preschool this year, and he has learned so much! He can write his first and last names, and he is starting to read a little. What a little smarty pants! Thanks Marifran and Desiree, you have been great teachers, we will really miss you.