Five Brown Kids

Sweater, tights, shoes - Free (from Cheryl) Dress - $1.00 (20 items for $20 from mom in neighbourhood) Bracelet - Free (Gift from someone at church) Hair bow - $0.10 (bought a pack of hair thingys all by myself) Joy from dressing a little girl - Priceless! Yesterday, while the boys were playing "olympics" with friends outside, Scotia pushed her stroller with baby doll up the hill, over to the park, and then got out her baby and put her in the swing for a ride. I just followed. She is also very into her board books. I often find her sitting quietly on her bedroom floor engrossed in the pictures of all her books. She is so cute. After boys like my boys it is so wonderful to have this little girly girl.

Living Room Before After Playroom Before Before After Scotia Before After Dining Table Before After Flower box Before After Family Before After House Before After

Here's a link to a great story from the local newspaper. A grandpa out fishing with his grandaughter caught the biggest catfish on record in NC using her pink, plastic barbie doll fishing pole. Great story to read to your kids. Barbie rod hooks record-breaking catfish

My family lives so far apart that we don't get to see each other very often. So when I heard that by brother and his wife and kids were going to be in Charlotte just a few hours away I had to go see them. We hadn't seen each other since last summer at Na's wedding and this was my first time meeting my sweet little neice Norah. Jaxon, Scotia and I drove down. Spent some time swimming in the hotel pool, went out for some supper, looked at a few houses John and Carrie were looking at and then watched their kids for awhile in the hotel room while they met with the boss of this new job opportunity. Jaxon taught Rand some great new skills like how to dive from bed to bed without touching the ground and how to engage in a good pillow fight. Good thing we only see them once a year. I sure hope they take the job, I would love to have family close! And I would love to hang out in this amazing house!

This was a great week for the Ripple Family. My little sister Naomi, who last summer married the amazing Sloan, was sealed this week for time and all eternity in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. (For my parents, that means four out of four temple weddings) The event was combined with Sloan's family reunion, which my parents crashed. They stayed in a big house up in the moutains, soaked in the hot tub and tried water skiing on Deer Lake. Mount Timpanogos Temple Lest you think it's a good plan to get married and then sealed a year later, poor Naomi is sick as a dog with baby number one. Mom had to stash crackers and a little airline sick bag in her dress pockets for their day at the temple. Congratulations Noami and Sloan! Here's some pictures from the wedding last summer in Nova Scotia....

We'll be in Utah October 3-13. Cousins, grandparents, football games, temple square, cafe rio, hiking the Y - here we come! If you want to join us for some fun shoot me an email. See you soon! BYU Campus, can't wait to show my kids

My parents are going to Ecuador on their mission! They will serve in the LDS temple there. They leave for the MTC the first of November and will serve for 18 months. From fishing village, frozen north to humongo city, right on the equator. Can't beat that for a little shake up! Congratulations Mom and Dad!

Still waiting for that special letter in the mail. Any day now...

Tonight was our swim team banquet. Taye tied for most points earned on the team this season and won a very large trophy. This would be exciting anyway but for a barely seven year old it's unprecedented. Because Taye swam six and under this summer he didn't get any points for butterfly, medley relay or freestyle relay. All his points came from being undefeated in back, breast and free. Way to go Tayeberry! Jaxon also has a sweet little trophy and adds it to his collection. Not bad for four. Sign on the car for the parade through the neighbourhood Tyrone also played in a local b-ball tournament today and his team won the championship. It was a big day for the Brown house. My trophies? Three amazing men - I take credit for them all! Two videos below. The first is Taye getting his trophy - very dark and hard to hear - suitable for interested grandparents only. The second video is of the boys swimming. Taye is in lane 3, Jaxon lane 5

Wow! So I've been sailing along all summer, listening to reports of higher food prices but not really paying much attention. Then on Thursday I was at Sam's Club buying my usual cart full. Holy cow! The big bulk package of 93% lean hamburger meat that has cost around $12 for as long as I can remember was $17! And the six pack of romaine lettuce - last time I was paying attention it was around two or three dollars, now it's 5 dollars and sixty cents. When did this happen? Who can afford to eat anymore? It is nice that gas is going down a little though, who ever thought we'd be thrilled to pay $3.70 a gallon?