long lost pictures

we recently purchased a new computer (a 27" imac). we gave our old computer to my parents because they have not purchased a new computer since TLC was my favorite music group and hammer pants were still cool. ok, it hasn't been that long, but you get the idea.

while chris was transferring all their data from their old computer to their "new" one, he found some pictures that we took back in april and may of 2008, while we were living with them before we bought our house. enjoy!

ellie

everett

alli... yes, i promise, its alli! how is possible that she can still be beautiful even when she takes a "bad" picture?!

girls just wanna have fun!

my sisters all came to visit for a BROWER GIRLS WEEKEND!!!!!!!

my sis-in-law, DeLauna, rented a villa in port charlotte for us to all hang-out and do whatever the heck we wanted for the weekend! even though it was so cold, we still managed to have a BLAST! here is just a smidgen of the pictures we took...

at the villa:

at the beach:

at fisherman's village:

at coconut point:

at our house:

we had so much fun! i dont even know where to start! we had so much good food (at home and at restaurants...we even ate at a little place called sisters, awwww), watched great girly movies, some of us got massages, janie laughed her tail off while getting her pedicure because she's so ticklish, went skinny dippin' in our private pool, and even went shopping together at victoria's secret! it was a great GIRLS weekend and im so glad to have sisters that love to be together

ALRIGHT! i cant say that WE went skinny dipping because I didnt! the water was just too cold for this florida cracker. but half of the girls did including someone whos name starts with J and ends with E...

oh yeah, thanks chris for letting me go... i guess i couldnt have had so much fun if it werent for you :)

when grandma comes to town

Grandma Janie came to visit! we were lucky enough to have her here for a week and a half. unfortunately she wasnt able to escape the cold ohio winter because it was freezing here! whats up with all this cold weather?!

we played at several different parks, blew bubbles, rode bikes, went to "farmer mike's u-pick" for oranges and grapefruit, went on walks, got ice cream, went for a train ride, picked out surprises (toys), and chris and i even went out on a date to our favorite indian restaurant in bonita! whew! that was a long list and im sure i missed a few things. here are a few pictures from the past week with grandma!

this is our conductor, jerry, who was a silly man

a few of the sights from our train ride:

and my personal favorite! a creepy drummer boy

we miss grandma all ready! i guess thats what happens when we are all so spoiled!

i just hate goodbyes!

i think this picture of ellie pretty much sums up how we feel about our friends, the smiths, leaving for pennsylvania!

you know when you have planned things to say to someone and when the time comes, somehow none of it comes out? thats what happened when i had to say goodbye to katie. i feel like we have been such good friends over the past 2 1/2 years, doing all church things together, starting our joy school together, and all of our playgroups "for the kids", that i dont know what im going to do with out her! whenever jack would be going through some rough patch (which was often), i could always talk to katie about it because she had been there with jenna. when it came to chris' work or school, katie had been through it with ben. i couldnt say any of this to her when i was saying goodbye because i knew i would break down and cry like a big boob. we just had such a good friendship and if i thought this was the end of our friendship, then i would be pretty sad right now. but i know it's not and i am so excited for their little family to be moving on and starting this new phase in york.

besides, when chris is done with school, we are going to make sure the boys go to some conferences together so that we can all hang out again... im looking forward to that!

3 hooligans

chris took these pictures this afternoon. there is something so irresistible about shirtless scamps!

p.s. those are lilies we planted next to our front door. its a very peaceful, welcoming site before entering our world of chaos!

2 weeks of randomness

chris just had a two week break between school semesters. rather than going on a little trip or doing anything in particular, we just hung out and did, well, whatever we wanted each day. it was so much fun and i know the kids enjoyed having dad home for 2 weeks! hopefully he was able to recover from his last semester and prep for round two. this school stuff is brutal for all involved! 1 down, 6 to go. but im not counting......really.......promise.....ok, i am.

one morning i slept in, woke up, poured some cereal, went to the fridge, and i saw this posted on the fridge:

i dont think most girls would be too excited to see a creepy man with an eye-patch asking for a date. BUT I WAS SO EXCITED! this guy's name is dale chihuly and he is a glass artist. he has been my favorite artist since middle school. he has a brand new art exhibit at the philharmonic in naples and chris took me to see it! most of you have probably seen his artwork and not even realized it. there is quite a bit of it around salt lake city in fact.

i decided that, though i do love a lot of his work.... he isnt really my favorite anymore! oh well, it was a lot of fun to go with chris and see all of the art. while we were there, our guide was quite old and had a very soft voice. on top of a soft voice, the museum was packed. well, needless to say, it was near impossible to hear our guide. there was an old lady in our group that would just start yelling "I CANT HEAR YOU I CANT HEAR YOU I CANT HEAR YOU!" and pushing people out of the way! she was so rude that we decided to just cut the guided tour and explore on our own. you'd think after living here for so long i wouldnt be shocked by the utter meaness by the old toots that come during the winter, but they never cease to amaze! in fact, i have thought about writting a letter to the editor about our experience at the phil, but we'll see if i get around to it... and if i really care that much!

this is my favorite of his work. it is at the bellagio in vegas.

ellie, everett and jack all received kites for "thing 1 and thing 2's" birthday. jack is in LOVE with kite flying now! and truth be told, he's pretty darn good at it for a 3 year old!

this is the look ellie would give us right before letting go and watching her kite get carried away in the wind... what a scamp!

to celebrate a semester well done (straight A's), we bought a cheesecake. i gave ellie a tiny little piece of it one afternoon, went in the laundry room for about 10 seconds, came back and found this:
yes, thats right, cheescake smashed into the back of her head! what drives kids to do the things they do?!

jack started soccer with his buddy connor. he really enjoyed it, all though he would just randomly tackle someone (from his team or the other, it didnt matter), kick the ball way out of bounds and continue running with it, or start swinging at other kids for no reason. he is beyond our understanding!


we ripped out all of our plants and put in some new ones. we had so much fun digging and watering! hopefully we dont have another frost attack anytime soon!


ellie has enjoyed all of her new clothes from her birthday. i have been really surprised at how girly she has become. everytime she puts on a new shirt she says, "ooooooooh toooooot toot! so pity"
translation: "ohhhhhhh cute cute so pretty!"

grandpa browne brought a bicycle home for jack and now he thinks he is the king! i mean, come on, wouldnt you if you were the only kid big enough to ride a bike!

the kids have also been practicing their singing.... unfortunately they dont have the best teacher... and it shows... :) since this video, ellie has been weened from her bottle. whew! it only took 5 months, but we did it!