What A Week!

Last week was amazing, crazy but amazing! Last Monday we took off to Salt Lake to see the lights, go shopping, rest, and spend time with family.

We spent 2 nights and 3 days at the Kimball with my parents and had so much fun.  On Tuesday we went shopping at the South Town Mall.  Well my Mom went shopping and we played.  The girls so Santa, rode on a train that goes across the mall, and rode on the carousel. Then my sister Wendy came to see us and we all went to see the lights.  Bailey kept saying "This is the best Christmas ever!"  She also loved holding Aunt Wendy's hand and dragging her all over temple square.

On Wednesday we loaded up and came home. Ben went to work and I attacked the laundry.  On Thursday we took off for my parents house in Idaho.  We had to drop some stuff off at my brother Todd's house and he invited us to dinner so we had a good dinner with him and Brenda.

On Friday I got my nails done and we got ready to take off to Boise to see my brothers.  We stopped at my brother Scott's house for awhile and then went and had dinner with my brother Eric.  It was awesome to see all of my brothers and sisters in a 4 day period.

Saturday was Bailey's birthday and we had a party at Scott's house and then most of the boys in the family went to the Idaho Famous Potato Bowl.  They had lots of fun.  Sommers and I went shopping with our kids who are basically the same age so it was like having 2 sets of twins.

Sunday  we left Boise around 10am and with a stop at my parents made it home around 7pm. It was a good week with 4 different destinations. Bailey slept in 5 different houses.  We had an amazing, crazy week, but it was so good to see everyone.

A few highlights

So I haven't blogged in a LONG time and I've decided I'm not going to catch up, but just do the highlights.

We made our yearly trip to the Hogle Zoo in September. 

My parents and my sister Wendy joined us for the day.

We had so much fun.

We carved our first pumpkins this year.

Bailey kept playing in the pumpkin gutts and saying

"This is disgusting!"

Bailey was a ladybug for Halloween this year and Hinkley was a bee!

I don't have any picture from Thanksgiving, I guess I'm not really sure where November went! Hoping to do better at keeping up on my blog!

My Tiny Dancer

Bailey started dance class in January, she had to be 3 to start so I got her in as soon as I could.  She loves going to class and being with other kids.  She is one of the youngest in the class, which totally stresses me out.  The other little girls try to pick her up and they have dropped her a couple of times and of course they try to mother her too, but she still loves it.

She loved getting dressed up and getting her hair done. I don't have any make up so we got to skip that, but thank heavens for cousin Katie, she let us borrow some lip gloss!

She did really well the night of her performance! I was so proud of her, the dance was super cute and I was so happy that she only had 1 dance and it was at the beginning of the program.

A huge thank you to my amazing family, my parents, my sister Wendy, my brother Todd and his wife Brenda for driving 2 hours to watch Bailey dance for 3 minutes and gave her 2 groups of flowers, had dinner and than drove 2 hours back home.  Thanks to Lyndsie for being there for all the special moments.  As you can see from the picture Bailey does not lack attention from any one!

Valentines Day

The weekend before Valentines Day we had to get some new tires on Ben's pickup. So we needed to do that in Idaho. My niece went down on Friday and took the girls home with her, so Ben and I had a little time to ourselves! :) Ok Ben's in tax season so not really and I cleaned the house all day on Friday. P-A-R-T-Y. We did go out and have an amazing dinner at Texas Road House, which is in my top 10. On Saturday Ben when to work and I got ready to head to Idaho as soon as he got home. Thanks Lyndsie for taking them home with you!


On Monday we got Bailey a movie and Hinkley some toys, they each got a little toy from Todd and Brenda and a BOX full of goodies from my sister. Wendy likes to spoil the kids. She also sent a couple boxes to Idaho too! We had candy, pencils, hair bows and bands, towels, note bookes, toys, straws, candy, and I think some candy! Thanks Aunt Wendy for being so sweet and sending the package! Thanks Brenda for the braking talking puppies too. The girls are so lucky to have aunts, uncles and cousins who spoil and help take care of them!

Bailey also had a party at preschool and we went to the neighborhood Valentines party, so we have a ton of candy if any of you have a shortage we'd be more than happy to share!

Thanksgiving '10

It was a Gerratt year for Thanksgiving and we still all got together. It was weird wtihout my parents there but the next time its a Gerratt year they will be back.

A lot of the work and stress went to Todd and Brenda. They offered to have dinner at their house! There was a lot of us, but it was so much fun and great to see my family. We stayed with them and the rest of the family stayed at my parents house.


Brenda went above and beyond, she had craft projects for the kids, turkey hats and snow man tree ornaments. She also had a snow man pinata for the kids. She and Lyndsie filled the pinata with candy and little numbered bouncy balls. Each kid got a ball and after they gave the ball to Brenda she gave them a prize. All the boys got remote control cars and the girls got little Fur Real animals. They all loved them!


Dinner was awesome! We had SO MUCH food it was comical. We had turkey, prime rib, salads, home made rolls, vegetables, and so many pies that we didn't have enough room on the table for them all! It was so much fun to watch the kids play, eat, watch football, eat, be together, and eat!

I also love that the girls were able to spend time with thier Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. Eric's kids are older but so amazing with their younger cousins. Hinkley and Slater are only a month apart and so cute together. Slater has always been longer than Hinkley. She, as you can see, is much chubbier! Thanks Todd and Brenda for hosting Thanksgiving. It was awesome to see everyone, it makes me wish that we could see everyone more often.

Daddy Time and Turkey Painting

We were all home just hanging out and playing with the girls. I went to change laundry and while I was upstairs sorting clothes Bailey came up stairs and found the laundry basket and told me that she was taking it down stairs. When I came back down this is where I found the girls. Hinkley was in Bailey's jumbo blocks box and was loving it. I guess she thought she was pretty cool.
Bailey put some blocks in on top of her and Hinkley was totally happy to hang out and play with the blocks. When Bailey saw how much fun Hinkley was having I guess she thought she needed to try it too! Hinkley has now learned to scoot so there is no confining her to anything!


My sister sent Bailey this little turkey to paint. Bailey was so excited and couldn't wait to piant it. I didn't know what the paint would do to the table but it came right off of everything that it should have. Bailey had an awesome time and felt so grown up. She even put it in a special box when the the Thanksgiving decorations went down. Thanks Aunt Wendy for the awesome memeory, we wished you could have been here for the painting party! I thought I had a picture of the finished product but apparently not!

Outing to the Zoo

So we took Bailey to the zoo last year and decided that she was a little young and we would'nt go again for a couple of years. Not to mention the day we went was the first day in weeks that it hadn't rained, the zoo was packed, and it was HOT!! That may have been a part of our decision to wait.


Well Bailey is growing up way to fast and she is so cute about everything new and gets so excited that how could we deny her a trip to the zoo. My niece Lyndsie is back in Logan and a trip to the zoo couldn't take place without her and one of Ben's brother's friends Eric moved to Logan recently to go to school so he came too. Neither one of them had ever been to the Hogle Zoo before! What!!! I didn't know that was possible. But they probably just wanted to be with Ben and I, we are pretty cool to hang out with, two old people with two little girls, what a party.


On the way to the zoo Ben asked where the directions were...ok not a great start to the trip, but I reminded him that I was trying to get the girls ready and out the door and since he was driving the directions were his responsibility. Luckily for us we have a navigation app on our phones so we did make it with out any issues!


We had so much fun! Bailey loved all the animals, being with everyone, riding the carousel, the train and a surprise visit from Aunt Wendy! And on a random side note Ben and I ran into a childhood friend, yep love the Hogle Zoo. Hinkley was amazing! She was such a good baby, she didn't cry once all day. We were on the road by 10:30am and weren't home till about 10 that night and the only time she cried was around 9:00pm. I love that little monkey.


My sister met us at the zoo and than we headed to her house to relax and let Hinkley stretch, she had been strapped in her car seat or stroller all day. Than we all went out to eat with my sister, her husband, and my niece Lexie. Than we had a little issue, I changed Hinkley's diaper 3 times at my sisters house and with the other 2 changes before that I was totally out of diapers, so dang it, we had to make a quick stop at Target! Oh darn! I got the cutest winter pajamas for Bailey and diapers for Hinkley. What a day!

Well Hogle Zoo can't wait until next year to see you again!

LOTOJA

So my brother-in-law is amazing. He did LOTOJA (Logan To Jackson) last year and wanted to do it again this year. I think we were out of town last year because they didn't stay with us, but this year we were here so they came to hang out.

They showed up around 10:30 pm the night before the race. Dave went off to bed first and they rest of us didn't go to bed until after midnight! I am way to old to stay up late, but I had a great time talking to my sister, Wendy, my nephew, Jason, and my niece, Lexie.


We all went to bed for a few hours. Wendy and Jason were driving to Dave's check points and would be meeting him in Jackson. Lexie would stay to hang out with us for the day. Dave had to be at the starting line at 5:45am and so they were awake around 4:00am that morning. CRAZY! Well my little Bailey decided to join them that early. Apparently she woke up, walked into the guest room, looked at Dave and asked him "Where's Mommy?" He told her I was still in bed. She looked at him again and asked "Who are you?" He told her he was Lexie's daddy, she seemed ok with that and kept them company until about 4:45am when I heard her little voice and FLEW out of bed. I was so embarrassed that I hadn't heard her sooner! They left around 5:00am and Bailey went back to sleep after that, thank heavens.

The next day Lexie and I went shopping! Ben had the girls and I had so much fun with Lexie. I don't get to see her much and it is always great to have a shopping buddy. We went to the Shade Shirt sale, Old Navy, the mall, Hobby Lobby, and had a great time. I love hats and Bailey has always been really good at wearing them and I bought this hat while we were shopping.


We had a great day and another late night. Dave finished the race and beat his time from last year and than they headed back to Utah. They got to Logan at 1:00am Sunday morning and left! They headed back home which is about another 2 hour drive! I'm way to old to stay up late 2 nights in a row, but I had a wonderful time and loved seeing them!

Thanks for staying with us, hopefully we can make it a yearly tradition! Also thanks for the pajamas, teddy bear, and little bunny Aunt Wendy!

Family Time!

A couple weeks ago my brother Scott blessed his baby, Slater. Slater was born a month after Hinkley and is such a cute little boy. We wanted to be there for the blessing and so we headed back to Idaho. We spent the first night at my brother Todd's house, we had to drop off the dogs and by the time we got there I had spent enough time in the car. My sister-in-law Brenda had made the girls the cutest skirts, hair accessories and bought them onezies to match. Thanks Brenda!

On Saturday my brother-in-law, Dave, ran, swam, and biked the Spud Man. Congratulations Dave for finishing the Spud Man! After he was done we all had an amazing breakfast at Todd's then we loaded up the girls and headed on to my brother Eric's house.


We hung out for awhile there and than we all got ready and went swimming. Wendy and her family were staying with Scott and they all came swimming too. Bailey was a little nervous about the water, but after awhile she was pushing Ben away. Thanks Yvonne for those amazing floaties!

On Sunday Scott blessed Slater and did a great job. All five of us were there and it was hard not to miss my parents when we are all together! After the blessing we went to Scott's house for an amazing luncheon. Sommers and Scott had worked hard to make it really nice. Mom called to say hello to everyone while we were together and it was great to hear from her.


We tried to leave soon after we ate and I was SO not looking forward to the 5 1/2 hour drive back to Logan. We had to stop midway and pick up the dogs and Todd and Brenda fed us and sent us on our way. It was a great weekend, I loved being with everyone and I loved getting out of the car after that long drive!

The Browns VS The Yard

So when we bought our old house 4 years ago we had to do all the landscaping, which we did. It wasn't easy, fun, or cheap! So afterwards Ben promised me that if we ever moved (because he told me that we were going to be in the last house for at least 10 years, and we weren't even in it 4) and the landscaping had to be done that we were going to pay to have it ALL done. Well he lied! This is a picture of what we had to deal with. The dirt was pushed back the legal amount from the house and we had to do the rest. We were told we would need a 7 foot retaining wall! If my kids were to fall off of that they would seriously injure themselves. We weren't told about our landscaping issues until the house was well underway so all we could do was deal with it!


In March my brother Todd came down with a semi hauling a loader to move dirt around to see what he could do for us. Thank heavens for Todd and that he loves my kids. He wasn't happy with the landscaping issue and knew that it wasn't kid friendly. He spent two days leveling and moving dirt and when he was done we only had to have a 3 foot retaining wall! He saved us a ton of money and I'm sure several trips to the ER.


So since we moved in, at the begining of May, we have been dealing with a LOT of dirt! We have worked with landscape people designing plans for sprinkler systems, curbing, fences, top soil, sod, and everything else that goes with a yard. For Memorial day we had some of Ben's family here helping to install the sprinkler system, which we later learned had been designed wrong! The guy had measured the yard wrong which totally screwed up everything! He admitted he had done it wrong, but said he didn't have time to fix it and we were basically on our own!


Ben worked on the yard constanly! We had a ton of help from our neighbors, especially Tyler. Tyler helped Ben in our yard every night even nights when Ben worked late Tyler came over and worked with out Ben even being here! We really appreciate Tyler paying a landscape company to do ALL of his yard so he could help us with ours!


So two weekends ago we were finally to the point of laying sod! Yea for us! So we called all of our family and anyone who was silly enough to say that they would help us. Ben had his older brother Daniel here with two of his boys, his brother Jacob, sister Suzy, and his sister Kat, to watch our girls. Ben learned from Tyler's landscape guy that we would need to install a pump to boost our water pressue that would cost us over $1000! So we bought one here and had Jacob install it and saved us a ton of money. Thanks Jacob. Jacob also worked on the sprinklers to make sure that all the grass would get water and so by the time we were done he was soaking wet!


I called my nephew Jason, who offered to help. He ended up coming from Sandy with my sister Wendy, her husband, Jason's wife, my nephew Logan, and my neice Lexie, who also helped watch the girls. It was a party! We laid over 13 thousand square feet of sod and were done before noon. We were a little short so we ordered some more and finished the sod last week.

A huge thank you to everyone! We couldn't have done it with out all of your help. I thought the sod would take us all day. Thanks again it took almost 3 months but we finally won the war against the yard!

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!!