Time with Family

We got back from our trip to Boise on Sunday and we were short one person. We took Lyndsie home when we went, but my brother wanted her to stay until Monday and he and my sister-in-law Brenda would bring her back to Logan on Monday. So we were able to all go out to dinner at Firehouse. We had great food, dessert, and so much fun just being together. Well Lyndsie hung out at our house after her parents left and then went back to her apartment. We she got there, there were some major issues going on so she came back to our house and lived with us until Thursday when we could get her into a new apartment. It was great to have her and I'm soo soo happy that we could be here when she needs us. She is in a new apartment with a lot less drama.

On Thursday Ben had a flag football game that Bailey and I were able to go to. It was a good game and soo crazy trying to chase Bailey everywhere. My cousin's daughter Brookie was there with her uncle, who is a partner at Ben's accounting firm. She was so cute with Bailey, I don't know if Bailey even remembers her but she helped keep an eye on Bailey for me which was really nice.

On Friday we had our last gymnastics class. Bailey was a lot braver about the horse, tramps, etc, than she was when we started and she had a ton of fun so I am happy that we took the class.

The afternoon my parents came into town. My Mom and I had tickets to Time Out For Women for Friday night and Saturday. The speakers were awesome and we had such a great time together! On Saturday Ben, Dad, and Bailey, picked up lunch, picked us up and we headed to the park. Bailey loved running around and I loved spending time with some of my FAVORITE people. The meetings lasted until about 4:00pm and than my parents had to rush home for a stake meeting my Dad had. It was great to be with them and I am so grateful for the wonderful people who raised me!

Trip to Boise

Last week one of Ben's friends got married in Boise it is about a 5 hour drive and made for a very crazy Friday.

Bailey and I left gymnastics early and headed home. Ben and Lyndsie (my niece) were already here when we arrived. We made it out in good time, but because we hurried so fast we didn't get time to grab lunch so we stopped in Tremonton at a Burger King. It's usually fast but we had to wait for 20 minutes for our lunch which slowed us down. My parents had a funeral to go to and they were keeping Bailey so we dropped Bailey and Lyndsie off at Lyndsie's house and hurried to my parents house to drop off bags and the dog.

We made it to Boise about an hour and a half before the wedding. We dropped all of our bags off at my brothers house, chatted with his wife and kids for a few minutes, changed our clothes and off we went. The wedding was nice and we knew some people from home. After the wedding it was back to Eric's to change clothes again and head over to my other brother Scott's house. We hung out with Scott, Sommers, and Shaydon until around midnight and headed back to Eric's.

On Saturday two of Eric's kids had soccer games that morning so we hung out with them and then headed out to meet Scott and family for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Breakfast was good and it was so much fun to hang out with my brothers and their families.

After breakfast we headed back on the road to my parents. Watched the BYU game, hung out, went to church the next day and were back on the road for home sweet home.

And of course no pictures so these two pictures are some old ones from this summer of my nieces and nephews!

Labor Day Weekend

Ok, Ok, so I know that I am way behind, but better late than never.

So for Labor day weekend we headed back to Idaho for Ben's family reunion. We left Logan in pretty good time, but we had to stop in Pocatello (Ben's 2nd home) to help Jacob out. It was soo great to see Breawna just to talk and hang out. After the stop in Pocatello Bailey DID NOT enjoy getting back into her car seat and we enjoyed the hour drive home with her screaming! We got her ready for bed and then fought with my parents about putting her down. They won, kicked us out to go and get some dinner and they put her down.

We hung out at Ben's mom's house until late Friday night and decided for the family service project to head back to Pocatello to help Jacob with his shop. I was totally ok (honestly) with going back, but not with the time. Ben was waking me up at 6:45AM to get ready to head out! So not cool. But we had a really fun time Breawna and I on the roof painting the side of the building. What a memory! :) We headed back just in time to watch the BYU game with Ben's Grandma and she loved laughing at Ben and how excited he gets about his BYU games.


Sunday we all went to church and some of the newer members of the ward couldn't believe how many Brown's there were! Ben's mom headed to nursery with three of her grandkids just to be with them! I did feel better about dropping Bailey off knowing Grandma was there to protect her! I know I'm a little out of control! That night we all went outside and sat together as a family and all the kids told a story about Don. We all laughed and remembered a great man.

On Monday we went golfing and had a great time with everyone. There was a lot of us and the people who ran the course were really nice and gave us clubs to borrow for free, free carts, and a bucket of free balls. I think the guy was just trying to hit on Ben's sister Bethany, but it was really nice of him anyway.

Thanks to my parents for watching Bailey for us as much as they did and thanks to all the Browns for the great weekend. Yes I forgot my camera on all the days except for the family service project day! Sorry.

A Little Behind!

Last week we started GYMNASTICS! Yep, Bailey and I are now in a Parent/Tot class and she loves it. After class and Bailey's nap we headed to Jamba Juice for a treat for Bailey and I and to thank Lyndsie for all of her help that day and to introduce her to Jamba!

We sort of had an interesting weekend, on Friday Ben headed to Idaho to help his brother Jacob. He left that morning around 6:30am with my car. He wasn't sure that his pickup would make it (or so he said) I think he just didn't want to put the miles on it and it doesn't have any A/C. It was also the first time that I have been at the house alone with Bailey over night since she was born. Ben is usually gone for several days so we head home to Idaho, but it was just over night and I feel that sometimes it is easier to just be at home so we stayed,and I slept like a Baby!

My niece Lyndsie is living in Logan for school and I am sooo happy that she is. She played chauffeur for the day and so she was able to take pictures of our first gymnastics class. Thanks Lou for all of your help. This picture is of Lyndsie and Bailey during class while I fixed the camera.


This is a big round cushion they have to crawl over and after helping Bailey get over it she leaned over and gave me a kiss. That is a way to melt my heart!

Kind of Boring

Well the past few weeks have been exciting, with swimming lessons and traveling, but this last week was kind of boring.

Monday thru Thursday afternoon were all about cleaning my house and running errands. Ben took Bailey and I out to lunch on Wednesday which was nice to get out of the house. On Thursday afternoon Brenda (my sister-in-law) came up with Lyndsie (my niece) to move her into her apartments. She will start classes on Tuesday. We are really excited to have Lyndsie here, Ben so he can play more with his friends, me so I can have one more person to have an adult conversation with, and Bailey so she can have one more person to spoil her. After Lyndsie got moved in we went to Fire house for a very late lunch. Lyndsie came over for a few hours on Friday morning, we went for a walk and talked.

On Friday We also found out that the canceled church on Sunday for the Temple dedication, some how Ben and I missed that announcement, but it was nice not to have to worry about our primary lesson.

Saturday we were supposed to go to Aggie day up on campus, Ben was excited to see an kind of football. But he had gone to play basketball that morning and had gotten hit pretty hard in the head, so after mowing the lawn he decided a nap was what he needed and not football.

Keepin' Busy

Last week Bailey and I still had four days of swimming lessons. I am really glad that we signed her up for the classes, but I was ready to be done smelling like chlorine and ready to get back on our regular schedule. This picture is before class on the last day - she closes her eyes in a lot of pictures just like her father.

On Wednesday of last week Lyndsie and Brenda (my niece and sister-in-law) came to finish making arrangements for Lou to move up here. Bailey and I were able to have lunch with them at Cafe Sabor (Yummy) and they left that afternoon to go back home. Of course I didn't have my camera with me so no pictures.

On Thursday Bailey decided she would try to step off the top of our outside cement steps. Her nose didn't look to bad that day, but when she woke up on Friday morning her little nose wasn't pretty.








On Friday we headed to Idaho. It was the big county fair and it's tradition for my whole family to head home and we all go to the fair/rodeo together. Thanks Dad for buying all the tickets and thanks to Brenda for watching Bailey.

On Saturday we met with Kelby O. he was a good friend of ours from High School. He came over to my mom's with his wife and family, Ben and I haven't seen them since their wedding. They have two cute little boys and it was great to see them for a little while. Bailey also decided that she needed to try on the football gear that my brothers and I had when we were little, she's cute in them, but I was thinking ballet shoes instead of football pads. Also not a big Cowboy's fan.

My AMAZING sister-in-law Sommers also made Bailey a cute skirt and flower that matched a onezee for Shaydon, we never got pictures which is way sad. But I will put her in the outfit and take pictures. Thank you Sommers for always thinking of Bailey and for being so darn crafty!

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.