Five Brown Kids

 Just hanging out around here - waiting for spring. Taye calls regularly with cold weather updates and new nursing knowledge. He is doing great!  Rosie is still being a dog.  Sara and I picked up 17 bags of trash on Martin Luther King Day.  Blythe is playing basketball.  Scored 8 points at her last game.  During a cold snap some puddles froze and the girls were delighted to play on the ice! 

Eight weeks ago Taye applied and got into an accelerated nursing program at a college in South Dakota. It's just a 12 month program and started super fast... so he'd be done and working as a nurse a whole year sooner than we expected.  We worked non-stop getting everything set up and then on Dec 29 Taye and I packed up his car and headed out for the long drive.  It was a lot of driving.  12 hours the first day to Indianapolis.  8 hours the second day to Minnesota to visit with the Ricks (my littlest sister) We toured Hannah's house, met Claire's guinea pigs.   Cute house.  Taye asked Hannah and Jake such good questions about nursing and church.  Derick came over the next morning and after a mega hug, and running to the gym to see Taye because he couldn't wait a second longer... opened a few more Christmas presents.  Tyrone always picks the best sweatshirts.  Then Jake took all the kids skiing/snowboarding.  And Hannah and I went to ...

On Christmas Eve we went to a fun Japanese restaurant.  Christmas morning we ate breakfast and then unwrapped a ton of presents…. They were all totally eclipsed by a surprise puppy!  Blythe was over the moon… her screams of surprise are memorable.   I have been promised that I have no dog responsibility and I’m holding everyone to it. Don’t look at me. I’ve done all the care taking I can handle.  I left for a walk when the girls were in Santa cookie mode and came home to this pretty display.  Sushi time… or hibachi. Depending on your likes.  So excited! She was up early enough to unwrap her stocking with Taye before he left for work.  Derick on face time.  After everything was unwrapped we had a surprise delivery.  Welcome Rosie. 

 Blythe is double digits!  We invited some friends over for an afternoon play date party.  They made Christmas pretzel treats with Tyrone Then they made lots of slime.  Then they played UNO with Taye.  Then they played Monster with Jaxon - our version of hide and seek/tag.  Scotia baked this beautiful cake - and decorated the house.  Happy Birthday bunny.