Five Brown Kids

Scotia turned 7 last week!  Wohoo!  We planned a super simple party - a picnic in our back yard with the neighborhood girls.  Dad made his famous mac n cheese, I made a veggie tray, fruit kabobs with strawberries, grapes and apples and Scotia and I made this killer 3 layer candy cake a la Cake Boss. All my cake pans are the same size so we had to cut the top layers down to size, which made for very crumbly edges.  Scotia helped mix, bake, cut, ice and decorate and she was thrilled, "Mom, we nailed it!"  (Tyrone offered to try and fix the icing but I said don't touch it.  Scotia loves it, her friends will love it and Martha Stewart is not invited) After lunch on a blanket sitting in the sun, we did a pumpkin rolling relay, sack races, ring toss with little pumpkins and about 25 rounds of duck, duck, goose which ended with a gaggle of squealing girls chasing after Jaxon and his friend all around the back yards (ours and our neighbors who don't seem to ...

I'm out working today and Tyrone is home cleaning and grocery shopping and working out.  Text - is this the right roast?  Text- these tomatoes?  FaceTime - fudge bars? And what's with all these Christmas decorations?  I love a relationship where housework and income work is shared... (Even though my share of income is pretty insignificant :-)

Scotia's school class went to the state fair this week - I checked Jaxon out and took him with and we had a wonderful day. I love that they are still ages to want to hang out with me and hold my hand all day. We checked out the pigs and cows and goats. Scotia milked a cow and that was "gross!" but exciting. The blue ribbon pumpkin was 799.6 pounds.  Lunch was fair food but we didn't try any fried Oreos or donut hamburgers.  Then we managed to avoid all the game workers begging us to toss rings or guess our weight on the way to the ferris wheel. Jaxon and Scotia also tried a roller coaster. They were nervous, then terrified and then ecstatic that they did it!  Scotia is sometimes cautious and shy - I'm always so happy when she just goes for something big.  I haven't been to the fair since Taye was a toddler and now I'm good for another decade.

Have you met my mom ? She's lovely. Very cute, very humble and really, really nice. Just the kind of mom you want. She and my dad are off on an adventure and yesterday in the mail I got this box. A birthday present for Scotia, one for Jaxon, Christmas presents for all and a bunch of cute baby clothes packed all around it.  She's on the ball too!  

A new neighbor gave us tickets for the state game last weekend. The boys had a great time. Scotia and I went baby shopping - we are ready now!

Tyrone started out his great new career with the long dreamed about 7-3, M-F schedule . After a few months changes at work made him one of the old boys and he had to switch to the call key. That's a ten week rotating schedule of days, nights and weekends. We were a little nervous at first but it's turned out great. The schedule repeats itself every ten weeks so I can tell you his schedule with exactness from now until retirement (or they change it, whichever comes first) the ten week schedule includes one "off week" where he is paid but is not scheduled to work. That along with paid time off makes for lots of vacation time. He has one Saturday/Sunday day shifts and one Friday/Saturday/Sunday night shifts every ten weeks - thats totally doable. The night shifts aren't bad at all. He has an assigned sleep room with a bed and he can sleep/rest until they need him for a case. (Up for a c-section and back to bed!) As a nurse he had to stay up all night and was exha...

Anyone want to guess when Jaxon will finally wear pants to school this fall/winter?  You can guess the day or the morning temperature.... so far low 50's aren't phasing him. He is a sports shorts and t-shirts guy all the way, every day.  We got smart this year and shopped in our attic for one pair of jeans.  Those are hung in his closet in case he ever has to dress up.  Then we purchased a couple pairs of these pants from the Gap.  A step up from sweat pants but still room to move for our active boy. I'm guessing the morning temperature will be 41 degrees before he hops out of bed and puts a pair of pants on....

The kids had two weeks off school. We had a pleasant break. Nothing big. Sleeping in/ tv watching/computer games,  lots of outside time and our favorite city activities. Taye is growing up. Still a tease but not unbearable.... I felt pretty calm the whole time. The kids biked down the art museum greenway with dad all the way to Fresh Berry's.  They'll do anything to pick their own toppings! Carleen gave me a flat ironing tutorial after my first failed attempt on Scotia. Turns out I need a smokin' hot flat iron! I did try to get a front shot but no luck. We met friends at Pullen Park, Falls Lake Dam, Buffalo Road Aquatic Center and Defy Gravity, played tennis, did some clothes shopping (Taye has a budget and is picking his own clothes this fall...) worked in one of the labs at the Museum of Natural Sciences all by ourselves, picked our favorite apples at the Farmers Market and visited the dentist. ...

This year for our annual Relief Society planning meeting we ended up at the beach! Enrichment, visiting teaching conference, RS sacrament meeting - all planned for the year plus some yummy food, quiet to listen to general conference and some serious reading at the beach.  Just what the dr ordered!