Tick Tock

Well, I'm another year older! My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I can't believe how fast this last year went. I have been so blessed to have had another wonderful year with so many blessings. My biggest blessing is of course that I was able to carry Hinkley for a full 9 months, that she was born healthy, and that she is a beautiful baby! I'm so grateful to have spent another year of my life with Benjamin, he is everything to me. I'm so blessed to be Bailey's mother. She doesn't say "I love you" she says "you to" and I love it when she randomly says "you to" to me! And I'm so grateful to my family and for their support, love, and the example of my parents. My parents mission hasn't been easy for me, but my life from the very beginning was touched my missionary work and I have such a testimony of the gospel that even though I hate them being away I know that they are doing what the Lord wants and needs them to do.


Ok enough being emotional! So the day before my birthday Lyndsie and Brenda came to Logan. Lou had to take care of some arrangements for school and attend some classes so they were able to be here with me. Ben usually tries to take a half a day off for my birthday, but wasn't able to this year so it was really nice to have the company. Brenda helped me start to hang all of my decorations, I really struggle at decorating, so it was nice to have her help.


I got two cakes, like I really needed 2, because Brenda bought one and Ben bought one. Brenda's was a cute water melon cake with 2 plastic ants on it and Bailey about had a melt down. She kept saying "EWWW Bug" and they had her almost in tears! Of course Bailey had to help me blow out the candles and was a little excited we had a hard time lighting them because she kept blowing on our matches. We had pizza and both cakes and it was nice to be with family since the parental units are M.I.A.

Ben got me a gift certificate for a massage! I can hardly wait to use it! He tried to be here as much as he could, he also got me a mirror that I wanted, a movie, and chocolate, some itunes songs, and his cake was a Cold Stone cake, I get one once a year and love them.


Also Hinkley will be four months old this week! I'm really having stress that my baby is growing up so fast!!! She is sitting in her bumbo and enjoys it, she is taking and yelling more and more, she is starting to roll, and has grown out of her new born clothes! I still rock her to sleep and I just try not to cry about how fast she is changing! She is such a happy baby and such a blessing to me. Bailey tries to get Hinkley to play with her, hold toys, wear hats, etc. Bailey has been such a sweet heart with her and is still very possessive of her. In fact she and I argue about whose baby Hinkley is!


Thank you to everyone who has been apart of my life this past year! It has been a crazy year, but a good one.

Holiday Recap

Now for the holidays!! We headed home to Idaho and had a family birthday party for Bailey. It just seemed to make sense, to wait a week, and move three people instead of 20! So my parents were awesome and let us all invade their house for the party. We ordered pizza and had a great time.


My niece Lyndsie decorated Bailey's birthday cake last year and for those of you who haven't spent 3 seconds with Bailey this winter - she LOVES Frosty the Snowman so when Lyndsie and Brenda found this cake it was perfect! They bought bowls to make the body and hand made this amazing frosting! Thanks Lou and Brenda for all of your work we love you!


We had my parents, Todd, Brenda, Jake, Kristi, Lou, Ben's Mom and Grandma, his little sister Kat, his sister Misti and her family, and of course Eric Todd Webb. We made another little cake to blow out candles and laughed, talked and played.

Thanks to both of our families for all of their love, support and for being a part of Bailey's life. She wouldn't be the amazing little girl with out all of you.


The day after Bailey's party was Christmas Eve and Ben's parents were both raised that Santa came to their houses first on Christmas Eve. So after a huge wonderful dinner the kids all go for a drive and look for Santa and when they get back he's already been to the house. So we open presents and play all night long. We have a great time being together, but we wore Bailey out!
She lasted till about 8:00pm and then kept saying "night, night!" So thanks to my amazing parents we took her back to their house and put her to bed and they kept an ear on the monitor and Ben and I went back to play. Also a huge thanks to Jacob for entertaining all of us while playing with Bailey, Corbyn, and Addison!


For Christmas Ben's Mom and Grandma got Bailey a little kitchen set and love them both to pieces they didn't make us take it home. We bought it in Layton and hid it from her until the day before we went to Idaho. She loves it, she is an excellent cook and cleaner! We get served lemons and pineapple in ice cream dishes usually with a knife or spoon. She knows that everything in the oven is "hot" and so the little hot pad gets some good use!


On Christmas morning we got Bailey some milk and then she wanted "bubbles!" She is a creature of habit, there were no presents to even be looked at until she had had her bath! So after her bath we got started with Christmas morning. She loved playing Santa and handing Papa, Grammy, and Daddy presents and of course she had to "help" them all open their gifts!


For her very last present at my parents she got her horse. My parents got one for Bailey and Shaydon and they both LOVE their horses. Bailey cried when we made her get off for breakfast. Our little horse had a little malfunction for a few days and didn't work and it was almost heart breaking she knew it wasn't working and there was nothing we didn't try to get it going. Thanks to our AMAZING neighbor Rick, who we knew if any one could or would fix it it would be Rick! I bought a BRAND NEW pack of batters and one of the batteries in the horse had a reverse voltage! Any way it was the first thing Rick checked and now horse is doing amazing!

After we finally got Bailey off of her horse it was off to Ben's Mom's for Christmas stockings and then off to my brother Todd's for our Traditional Christmas Breakfast. I think the only time I haven't had Christmas breakfast at Todd's was when I was on my mission. We have egg mcmuffins, fruit and chocolate milk, but it wouldn't be Christmas with out it. Of course there were more presents to open over there Bailey had to play Santa again and had to help everyone open their gifts!


And then it was off to Boise to see my other two brothers. Scott and his family met us at Eric's house and yep more food and presents! All the little kids drew names and exchanged gifts they were so cute about it. They were excited to see how their cousins would like their gifts and play with each others gifts and help everyone open their gifts! Eric's kids are so cute to play with their two younger cousins, Bailey and Shaydon. Bailey and Shaydon get along really well Shaydon is such a cutie, there are a few punches thrown and screaming but that's what makes it funny! We had a great time, we ate, played, went to bed late and the next morning Ben and I got up and went to buy a few things we need for Hinkley and then headed back to my parents house that night.

For New Years all five of us came to my parents. Actually Ben left me there and went home to work for a few days. Todd lives about 10 minutes away from my parents and so Eric, Scott, and Wendy came home to play with us. We all had a great time, thanks Todd and Brenda for letting us crash at your house and to Ann for letting me borrow my old car so I wouldn't be stranded!

From the Brown famiy to all of you - We hope that you all had a wonderful safe holiday and wish you a wonderful, amazing new year! Also sorry for the minute by minute recap we just had such a wonderful time I couldn't leave anything out!!

Starting to Recap

So the week we found out that the baby was a girl we flew out to Las Vegas. Ben had an exciting tax training down there! Anything to do with accounting is exciting! We were there a little less than a week. My parents who came down for the "big baby appointment" took Bailey back home with them so I didn't see my munchkin for a week.


We flew into to Vegas and stayed at the Flamingo, that's where Ben's classes were. Then we moved to the Excalibur and hit that end of the strip. His brother Jacob and wife Breawna flew in for a few days also. We went to shows, walked the strip, ate A LOT and had a really good time. Breawna and I get along really well and the boys can hardly go a day without talking on the phone to each other so we had a great time. I almost had Ben talked into taking me to Cher too which I would have loved just for the experience. Sorry that I look like a pregnant fat girl in my pictures, but I can't hide it or fight it!

The day after we flew in Bailey had a Dr.s appointment and got some more shots! Luckily they didn't bother her and she is healthy and doing well. A little shorter than average, but hey that's basically a given.


Also that week our little monkey had her 2nd birthday!!! We kept it pretty quite this year. It was just the three of us and we got pizza, I made a cake, Ben tried and failed to come home early, and she loved all of her presents. When I was about 3 my parents got me a wooden doll furniture set. It includes a high chair, bunk beds and a changing table. Well an amazing neighbor of my parents re-furnished them for free and Ben's sister Bethany, who is so dang crafty, made baby blankets, pillows, and pads for the seat and back of the high chair!! That was Bailey's big present.


She was way cute about her cake too, as soon as I lit her candle she started saying "hot, hot" and trying to blow it out! We love her to pieces and can't imagine how we ever lived without her! I can't believe she is already two, time has gone by so fast and I can't believe I am actually in the process of the doing it again! what was I thinking?

Since my last blog!

Well I know it's been about 2 weeks so here goes on trying to update our lives!

General Conference was AWESOME! I love General Conference and Ben was great about watching conference and not football! What was probably the cutest thing was that Bailey was soo sick of being with us cooped up in the house that when Eric (our amazing picture guy) came over to give me the proofs of our family pictures Bailey had to get as close to him as she could! I think she was just so happy to have someone new to hang out with. Eric is so sweet with her that he just snuggled her back!

We also celebrated Ben's 30th birthday in the past two weeks. I got him to leave work early that day and we went out to dinner at Texas Road House with our friends Tyler and Tiffany - Cara :) I promise we WOULD have invited you and MitChell, but I was told you were already going that same night. Lyndsie was great to babysit while we went to dinner and when Ben and I could eat again we had Banana Cream Pie, Ben isn't a fan of cake, with Bailey, Lyndsie, and Eric. Happy Birthday Ben, we love you!

Ben's sister Misti come into town and spent a Thursday night with us. She had training in Ogden and we were closer than home. It was great to see her and I wish she could of had her son Corbyn with her so he could play with Bailey, but maybe next time. The very next night my sister-in-law Brenda (Lyndsie's mom) came into town. We did some shopping and they went to Tap Dogs together and came back to talk. On Saturday morning we had breakfast got ready and went shopping again! I loved it and Ben and one of Lyndsie's friends came with us this time too. After shopping we met Eric at Firehouse for a wonderful lunch. After lunch Brenda headed back home, but we all had a great time.

Ben and I also celebrated our 7th Anniversary. I can't believe it's been 7 years, since we knew each other 18 years before we got married I really can't imagine my life with out him. He is a wonderful Husband and father. He works so hard so I can stay home and be with Bailey which is a huge blessing. He is my perfect match in every way. And after 7 years I still love that we can laugh together and enjoy spending as much time as we can together. I love you Ben.

Sometime during this time frame, Bailey got a package in the mail from Shaydon. I have the most amazing sister-in-law. When Sommers and Scott came to Utah they went shopping at IKEA and I had mentioned one time that I wanted these bibs that Shaydon had and Sommers remembered and not only bought us some but mailed them to us. After Bailey opened the package she had to put on her bib and wouldn't take it off for the rest of the day! Sommers is a wonderful sister-in-law, mother, wife, and aunt. Thank you Sommers and Shaydon!

I also went to Menopause the Musical with Lyndsie. We really didn't enjoy it as much as most of the older women that were in the crowd, but it was fun to spend time with Lyndsie. I have LOVED having her in Logan this year. After the show we went to Caspers Ice Cream and we both got a Hot Shot. It was soo good.

This last Saturday Ben decided that we needed to really enjoy college Football. So we got tickets and went to the USU game at 1:00pm. Bailey decided that a nap just wasn't going to happen for her that morning so we took a napless child to the game. She did pretty dang good until about half time. She was hot, tired, and really frustrated that she just couldn't move very far. So we went home to we get out of the sun and get some rest. Ben got a ride home from Tyler, thanks for bringing him home! :) There was a BYU game on that afternoon also so after the game we woke Bailey up (a little crazy) and headed to Shawn's house, he works with Ben. For the BYU game which started at 4:00 but thank heaven's for DVR we got there at 6:00 and were still able to see the whole game. Lucky us, and lucky us that BYU won! After the game we got pizza and Eric brought over the Proposal which I have been dying to see, so thanks Eric for hooking us up!

Wow, I think that's about it. Sorry if this blog is a little long, but I honestly haven't been on the internet for about 2 weeks, just haven't had a lot of time!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We had a really fun, busy week. On Monday Bailey and I started swimming lessons. They are four days a week for 40 minutes and she loves them. I don't have any pictures because 1- No one needs to see me in a swimsuit and 2- I'm in the pool with her so I don't have a way to take the pictures.

On Tuesday Ben took half a day off, took me to Cafe Sabor for lunch, and we hung out and had a great time. I was serenaded by two of our neighbors; Nicole, Elli, and Megan sang to me and gave me a package of Oreos, the whole Hofland family sang and brought by a box of Creamies, Jon, Sherri and girls came by that night with a whole banana cream pie! My friends like to make sure that I weigh more than they do. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes - they were appreciated.

Ben and I bought a car a few months ago and decided that the car was going to be our birthdays and he bought me a new ipod Nano which was supposed to be part of my b-day. But when it came right down to it he had a hard time that we were turning 30 (he won't be 30 for a couple of months, but it still struck him a little hard :) So I got the shoes I have been wanting for a while now, he bought me a Cold Stone cake and some other great gifts, I love my Star Wars Chewbacca bobble head! I had a great Birthday - thanks for everything Ben.


On Wednesday Ben was asked by one of the partners at work (we'll call him Brett) to help the firm out that night. I would have been fine with that except that Brett wanted Ben to play on the firms softball team! Ben had decided that he wasn't going to play this year so when he came home at 5:00pm and announced that the game started at 7:00pm we quickly ate and headed to the park for a little while before the game. Well lucky for me the 7:00 game was canceled because the other team didn't show up and since it was the play offs the firm automatically won and would play again at 9:00pm! So Ben took us home and he went back a little before 9:00, at 10:20pm I got a call saying that they had won the 9:00 game and would be playing again at 10:30!! I was thrilled and Ben didn't come home until after 11:30pm! But they came in second so congratulations Jones Simkins.

On Thursday we went to the Cache County Fair. It just isn't the same as our home town fair so we just can't really get to excited, but we got dinner there and Ben enjoyed his immensely. :)

Friday was Ben's firm Summer Party. They rented a theater and took us all to the movie. We saw Ice Age 3 and we took Bailey - it was free so hey why not. Thank heavens Nicole saw us walk in and came and got us and we sat with them. It was great, Bailey and Megan played with each other, ate each other snacks, sat in the same chair, and entertained each other. They are only 3 months apart and I SO wanted a picture of them sitting in the same chair together, but I don't think my flash would have been appreciated in the middle of a movie. After the movie we went to a park for dinner and to play on the park toys. Bailey was ever so grateful that her mommy is under 5'0 so that I could fit on the kiddy slide with her!

Saturday we took off to Pocatello to see Jacob and Breawna, because you know it had been two weeks since the boys had seen each other. Jacob is thinking about starting a mechanic shop and found a building so he wanted Ben to look at it. So we had a fun, rain filled day in Pocatello. We love spending time with J & B so it was great to see them and the boys will only have to wait 5 or 6 days before they see each other again, whew!

And on a side note sometimes when I'm on my cell I sit on the steps and talk. Bailey has obviously seen me do this and now thinks that it is normal to do this and when she is pretending to talk on her cell she hangs out on the bottom step too! I'm already screwing up my kid! Ok I'm sure I started long before now.