choco choco chocolate!

carrie miller is here!!!!!! we all know what that means! PARTAY TIME! we have been doing so many fun things together. we've been to the beach while browers were here, we went and got pedicures last night, and we have also been acting like we did in college. ok...more like we are high schoolers. yes, there is a story. and to be truly honest, carrie and i are slightly embarrassed, but oh well. i'll share it anyways. my mom was given a big box of chocolates and because she is on a diet she told us we could have some. well this box of chocolates is a sampling from various countries through out the world. well we came up with the "great" idea of setting up trays of each type of chocolate and then have delayna tell us which one to eat. after tasting it we then critiqued it, which consisted of guessing where we thought it was from and what flavor it was, comparing it to previous samples, etc. etc. well, needless to say, after 11 truffles we not only were extremely hyper, but felt so absolutely sick to our stomachs. we were disgusted with ourselves the next day... but that hasnt stopped us from eating chocolate here and there since then! these pictures are embarrassing so im not going to say anything else about it and let them speak for themselves.

yesterday i took carrie to cheeburger cheeburger to show her the resteraunt that kerz worked at in high school as a soda jerk. we got burgers and malts. mmm mmm tasty!

mom & dad brower

we had a wonderful, wonderful visit from bart & janie this past week! they escaped the frigid weather of idaho on the 18th and were able to stay with us until this morning. the boys golfed, surprise surprise, while the girls and babes played at home. we did everything from blowing bubbles, to baking birthday cupcakes, to painting and drawing. jack LOVED having grandma and grandpa there to spoil him! he will certainly miss them till the summer. it was so exciting for ellie, she usually missed one of her naps. that meant by dinnertime, she was pooped....

lets play a game! janie, jack, and i made cupcakes together. jack made one by himself. can you guess which is his?

we also went to the beach.

the water was so clear and calm, but it was also FREEZING! only the little ones could go in without getting goosebumps.

ellie got 2 new bathing suits for her birthday...this one is very sweet. the other one she got is very sassy (from everett:) ). but you will just have to wait until the summer to see it!

one part of going to the beach that usually is very unpleasant is the clean-up. however! this trip was fun because ellie and ev cleaned up together!

jack is absolutely obsessed with bubbles! granny bought him a huge bottle of bubble juice and a big wand. jack went through the 950 oz. bottle of bubble juice (i'm exaggerating a tid) in less than a week! he is a bubble bafoon!

bart & janie were also able to go to the keys while they were here. chris took them down there and they enjoyed key lime pie for breakfast lunch and dinner...and dessert too! i am going to have chris post some pics from their trip sometime.

we all enjoyed their visit and can hardly wait till june to see them again!

ellie's one... part 2

happy birthday to ellie & grandpa browne!!!!!!!

we had our combined birthday party last saturday evening (the 21st). it was a glorious time! the weather was bEaUtIfuL so we ate outside on the porch. we had fresh picked strawberries, green beans, pineapple, and fillet mingon. it was superb. then the birthday buddies opened gifts and we enjoyed carrot cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting, which were pretty good if i do say so myself!
ellie received her very first doll from grandma and grandpa brower! for some reason i was really excited about her getting a doll, so i asked janie if she wouldn't mind getting it for her so that it would be more special...silly, i know, but it meant something to me... and maybe some day it will to ellie as well.

this is one of the best pics i have ever taken! i LOVE this shot of jack. you can see the determination in his face.

i made this skirt for ellie for the occassion. it was a really fun project, and i am pleased with how it turned out. she was so stinkin' cute in it!

ellie and ev just ate green beans and berries for dinner and this was the result of that!

she looks quite pleased with her stash o' beans

i guess this video proves that she had NO problems playing the part of the "birthday princess". yikes.

jack takes his treats very seriously, he Might get that from his mommy :)

a very british valentines

yesterday was valentines day and i was working. i worked from 8-4. we dont usually do much for valentines so it wasnt a big deal. when i got home i gave chris a gift. this was because a few weeks back i bought myself a necklace and told chris that he could give it to me for valentines day... got myself out of that mess! and he had left me a bag of chocolates (not a box...quantity over quality for me when it comes to chocolate) on the counter in the morning. usually i give him a bag of jerky and he gives me chocolate and thats about all we do to celebrate. but we actually went out to eat this year! we drove around for a bit trying to figure out what we felt like eating and what place wouldnt be too busy and we decided on the British Open Pub. it was fun to go there with chris because he reminiced about his mission days and i LOVE hearing things from the mission. maybe because i have always wanted to go to england or maybe because i had always planned on serving a mission! chris is the perfect combination of the two! the best part of dinner, for me, was the dessert. i had warm apple pie with ice cream and chris had bread pudding with fresh cream. they were both tasty! chris liked his meal the best. when cooking for chris, you can never go wrong with bangers and mash.

my necklace from chris ;) and i have always wanted to get chris a boogie board, so naturally i picked out the best one they had! i have told chris about how much fun we had on these growing up and he hasnt been able to test it out for himself, so now he can! surfs up, dude

january projects

i have finally finished my projects that i started back in january! wahoo! for some strange reason i cant quite finish things when i sit down to do them anymore... hmm, i wonder if it has anything to do with my rambunctious 2 year old....

somehow i must have deleted my more detailed pictures of carrie millers apron, so guess we will all have to look at the pictures with her displaying it instead. pity :)

yes, it is a baked potato on her apron.

my next project was everetts toy snake

then i made some heavy duty envelopes for us to set aside money each month for our spending. oh how i loathe budgeting...but i guess thats why it is our family goal this year!

last but not least was delaynas birthday apron. i started this in the beginning of january and didnt finish it until this afternoon. she has been very patient with me considering her birthday was february 2nd. i hand stitched all the flowers that overlap the kids pictures and also sewed on some flower shaped buttons made out of shell. she loves all things polynesian so i thought this fabric was fitting! sorry the quality of pictures arent so hot, i wish rikki was here all the time to document everything!

ellie is ONE... part 1

ellie turned one on the 11th! i can hardly believe that a year has gone by since she first came to us. those first few months were very challenging for me, and i am REALLY glad they are in the past. now she has a very mellow temperament. usually we have to work to get her to smile and laugh. she is so sweet though and her laugh makes us smile.

she opened a couple presents on wednesday. one from grandma and grandpa browne and two from auntie rik. chris insisted on letting her eat cake. i didnt want to have cake or anything like that because we arent actually celebrating her birthday until grandma and grandpa brower come to visit this week. we are going to have a combined birthday celebration with my dad (grandpa browne's birthday is saturday the 21st) complete with steaks and cupcakes....what could be better! i have made a few simple decorations that i am excited about and will also be attempting to make carrot cupcakes. i dont know why i always wait to try new recipes until a time that i actually need something to turn out right, but i do. hopefully it will end up turning out. i will hopefully be posting pictures from the party next week sometime.

grandma and grandpa browne gave ellie a slide and aunt rikki gave her the sweetest little red corduroy jumper from gap, along with madagascar 2. thank you one and all! ellie and jack love the slide. well, jack loves it and ellie loves watching jack on it.

back to work

this week was the first week i have gone to work since jack was born. i am working for my parents through out the remainder of their busy season (april). here is my schedule. monday - wednesday i go on deliveries with my mom. we deliver any and all baby furniture. while i am on deliveries i get to drive my parents beast of a van while larissa babysits my loverly children. then thursday - saturday larissa goes on deliveries while i babysit everett. watching him is a breeze. he's practically perfect. my parents were going to hire someone, but then developed this genius plan. it's great for me because i get 3 mornings a week away from jack. hallelujah! its always good to get away because, i promise, i am a much better mom to the little man when i havent been trapped with him for a long period of time. this was our first week and i know i definitely got the better deal. poor larissa is stuck watching my two, plus another little girl from our ward. we are going to try it for a while, and if its too stressful then my parents will just go back to hiring someone!