Sarah Turns 23

Sarah's birthday celebration began with her and I getting a manicure in the morning, and ended at the Spaghetti Factory dining with the fam. With work and sports schedules, many times not everyone can come. What a blessing it is to have a big family, so that we have a lot of people, even when a few are missing.

Born, December 20th, I remember my little Christmas baby, wrapped up in a blanket, and placed in a Christmas stocking for me to take home.  What a wonderful - and surprising - Christmas present!  Sure love her and her spunky little personality!

Sarah and Jordan

Mason and Sarah

Wishing that he were her birthday present.

The Fam!

It's Costly When You Don't Pay Attention

There is no question who the 'King' is at our house. Ben knows exactly what he wants, and somehow gets what he wants most of the time.  Remember this?

Friday night was no different.  On the way home from the Braves basketball game, we stopped at Sports Clips to get Ben a much needed haircut.  Thanks to a well-meaning stylist, who game Ben some 'extras' one visit - Ben knows their menu well.

I was playing on my I-phone, and not paying attention to what was happening.  When I went to pay, I was a little surprised by my bill.  Fortunately, I paid without hesitation, and questioned Ben in the car.  "Why was your haircut so much money today?" I inquired.  "Oh, I got the MVP, with a neck message and head massage,"  he happily reported.

Moral of the story, pay attention at all times when you are with Ben!

Santa 2012

The annual Brown's Santa Party was hosted by Jeff and Chantall this year. The relatives in the South end of the valley usually accommodate Santa, since they are on his route.

The kids were lively, and spirited, excited to report to Santa their good behavior, and relay their Christmas wishes.  Most of the younger crew is great-grandchildren of Grandma and Grandpa Brown.  Mason (one of the greats) was the highlight of the night.  He is adorable, and loved Santa!

Gifts and goodies were in abundance!  Each child received a gift from Santa, and yummy ice-cream pies were served for dessert.

Prior to Santa's departure, he told us a few stories. Santa's filter was off a little that night, as he proceeded to share stories about weed, and the falsehood of Santa.  Hopefully, the little kids were busy playing with their new toys.  The adult children sure had a good laugh.  Whatever you do, don't ask Santa about the holly in his hat!

Despite Santa's lack of story-telling-judgement, he was awesome! The party was exceptional!  We all had a wonderful time!

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Santa

Dessert

Grand-daughters, and a great-grand.

Let's get the party started!

The crowd.

Naughty or nice?

Love me some Utah PJ's.

The kid's and Santa.

Mason and Santa.

Ben sick with a high fever and vomiting the next day.  Were Santa's candy cane's laced with something other than sugar?

Christmas Dance 2012

Mike and Annie Schmidt went to the Bountiful High School Christmas Dance together. If you know anything about Annie, you can't help but have a great time. She is very vivacious, pretty, and full of life.

For their group activity, they went ice-skating at the Galavan Center.  They planned an evening event to accommodate the basketball players.

Saturday, after the last game of the basketball tournament held at Orem High School, they went to the dance together.  Maddi Bearnson's parents hosted a delicious dinner, after which they danced the night away at the Utah Union Building.

Mike and Annie

Some of the group

Mike and his siblings!

Crafty

Sarah plans and organizes a craft day each month for us. We are all happy she comes up with the ideas, because the rest of us aren't so crafty.

Last month we made a Thanksgiving banner, and this month we painted wooden Christmas decorations. My patience is lacking with crafts.  Sarah made me re-paint my Santa because it "wasn't good enough".  Ha!

Although craftiness is not my forte, I sure enjoy getting together with my girls!  We have a great time!

Jordan's Turn

We celebrated Jordan's 24th birthday at Nielsen Frozen custard. Yep, that's where he wanted to go. He rarely eats sugar so we couldn't even celebrate with a frozen custard! What?

On Sunday he got to pick his favorite meal for me to cook, and Sarah and Meagan made him his favorite dessert - homemade Oreo cookies.  He may not eat sugar, but he indulged, and ate at least one cookie. Don't worry, the rest of us took care of the remains!

 Jordan is such a delight to have in our family! Happy Birthday Jordan!

Our family gift, a new leather jacket.

Lizzy Turns 14

Lizzy's cute friends decorated her room on Saturday for her birthday.  It was a big surprise! They came while Lizzy was performing in CAA Benefit Concert.  She came home to posters, and decorations abounding her room.

Lizzy chose Temple Square and City Creek Shopping Center to entertain us on her actual birthday.  Monday night was the perfect night to grab some Chick fil a, and view the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations.  It was pleasantly warm, with manageable crowds. We took our time, exploring the nativities, lights, and decorated windows.

Her family birthday gift was a bunch of girlie, girl stuff:  a hair melt, a pea coat, and a curling wand.  Her siblings provided her with fashionable clothing, and the cutest owl hat.  Meagan's talented mother-in-law made it for Quinn and Meagan to give Lizzy - absolutely adorable!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful baby girl! Love you Lizzy Lou!

Lizzy's friends

City Creek

Macey's Candy Windows

Temple Square

Owl hats made by Deeanne Cottle, hair melt, and clothes.

Happy Birthday Lizzy!

Christmas Mints - Re-post

Back my popular demand, I re-posted the Christmas mint recipe for those of you who have been inquiring.

I can't take much credit for the success of these beauties, since we create them in bulk with our "mint making" group.  There are five of us melting chocolate, adding the mint flavor, and cutting the final product.  Note, that I left out the pounding process.  Only one of us pounds.  My sister-in-law, Michelle Hanna is the ONLY pounder.  She is the best!  Pounding is the hardest part of making mints.  She pounds three layers of chocolate per pan.  In total we made about 20 pans of mints.  Yep, that's right, 20 pans, or pounding 60 layers of chocolate!  Wow!  We probably owe her a gift certificate to a skillful masseuse.

After we make mints we enjoy lunch delivered by Wasatch Brewery.  Besides a nice tip, the delivery boy receives some freshly made mints.

It might not be a fun day for our personal pounder, but the rest of us sure enjoy it.  We have a great time visiting and making yummy treats!

Fernwood Mints

22 0z. Milk Chocolate

11 oz. Green Chocolate (or white chocolate colored green)

Mint oil or Mint Flavoring

Measure 11 ounces of chocolate and melt in a double boiler, warm oven, or microwave. Put a dab of chocolate on a 12 X 18 jelly roll pan, (or cookie sheet with sides) to hold wax paper down. Trim wax paper sides or it will fall into the mints. Add 6 drops of mint oil or flavoring to taste in the melted chocolate.

Start at one end of the pan and quickly smooth chocolate with a spatula until it's even all over the pan. Grip sides of the pan and pound 6 or 7 times on counter. This makes chocolate smooth and even. Let stand while 11 ounces of green chocolate is melted.

Important: Chocolate layer in pan is ready when it barely loses its sheen all over. If it sets up too hard the layers break apart. Remedy: If too set up, put pan in warm oven briefly. Let set again to loose sheen. (This can be done to the next layers also).

When green chocolate is melted, add mint. Carefully spread on first layer. Try not to go over and over same area, as the 2 layers of chocolate will mix. When layer is on, pound and let sit.

Melt last chocolate. Add mint. Repeat process. Spread quickly, pound, sit until sheen is gone. Cut immediately into 1-inch or smaller squares. It won't cut if you wait too long. If you don't want curved edges on the outer mints, cut 1/4 inch around outer edge.

Enjoy!

Date Nights

What a blessing it has to have a little 10 year old boy who still likes to "hang out" with his mother.  Ben and I get to spend a lot of time together.  He is a riot, and fun to be with.  Last weekend, Ben and I went to the cheer on the Ute Basketball team.  Steve's siblings and parents all have season ticket together.  They aren't great seats, but it is a lot of fun to be around the family. Ben sat with his cousin Lizzy (big Liz), and I sat with the adults.  What a great time, and the Ute's finally pulled off a win!

Big Liz and Ben.

Pre-game meal at Noodles and Co.

It is preseason for the Bountiful Braves Basketball team.  Mike is a member of the team, but unfortunately he is on the injured list.  Mike's ankle (the one he had reconstructed last April), has been painful and difficult to walk on without a brace.  When we went back to his surgeon, he told us that the surgery had failed.  Talk about a let down!  I'm not sure who took the bad news worse, Mike or me!  The surgeon stated that if it was his kid, he would let him play basketball with a high tech brace (since it's his senior year), and have the surgery redone after.

We got a second opinion by another orthopedic doctor who was hoping that with more physical therapy the problem could be resolved.  After several visits to the Physical Therapist, the PT recommended that he began running.  Thanksgiving Eve, he took a run, came back in pain.  He iced his ankle, and rested it until the next morning. On Thanksgiving morning he played basketball with some friends, (for the first time in a long time) only to come home with the opposite ankle sprained.  It looked like a baseball was attached to his ankle - quite discouraging!

This week, we met with the orthopedic doctor who gave him a cortisone shot, hoping to alleviate the pain in the ankle that was reconstructed.  Right now, we are just hoping and praying to get him to walk without braces and pain.

Ben and I still go to all the Bountiful Braves Basketball games every Tuesday and Friday.  We cheer them on, even if Mike's isn't playing right now.

The cortisone shot.

Friday night, Ben, Mitch and I sent to Alpine to cheer on the Bountiful Braves.  It was a close game, and a sad loss.  On the way home we stopped for dinner at In-N-Out Burger.  Ben and Mitch are typical 10 year olds'.  I made them pull the fries out of their noses for this picture.  Sheesh!

Crazy little hooligans!

While driving on the freeway, I decided to make a stop at the Holiday Nights at Thanksgiving Point.  It did not disappoint!  Since it was late in the evening, it wasn't crowded at all.  We sat in our warm car, viewing all the wonderful lights.  Now that's my kind of light show!

At the end of the course, was a bible reading of Savior's birth, and a lovely manager scene.  What a great way to end the night!

Thanksgiving Point Holiday Lights

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving morning I wanted t start off the day participating in the Turkey Trot at SDRC. There are various length of races to enter, but the 5K seems just right for me. Sarah and I ran it a few years ago, and had a great time. I knew however, that it probably wasn't a good idea.

The last little while (a few months), I have not been exercising. I could get out my violin and tell you the many reasons why, but I'll spare you the boredom.  Today, Thanksgiving Day, I finally felt able to exercise again.

Katelyn and I decided to take the dog and have our own little "Turkey Trot".  I wasn't sure how far I'd be able to walk, since I'm basically starting over.  We began by walking from our house to the temple. When we arrived at the temple, we decided to walk further.  We walked from the Bountiful temple to Smith's Market to purchase some flowers for Steve's grave. Meg laughed when we called to tell her that we would be there shortly, (she lives right by Smith's and we needed some money) she didn't think we would make it.  After, a 4.5 mile walk, Kate and I arrived at Meg's condo.  What a beautiful day, for a lovely walk!

We spent Thanksgiving with Steve's family. Lots of cousins, aunts and uncles, along with my married children.  A big wonderful family feast!  Along with the traditional Thanksgiving meal were homemade pies, and candy.  Plenty of delicious desserts and treats.

The day wouldn't be complete without the ping pong tournament.  We spent hours visiting, feasting, and playing games. What a great time!

I have a lot to be thankful for!

The Turkey Trot, cutting through to get to Meg's house, and the cute little elf we found.

The Feast

Relatives, crutches (Mike sprained his "good" ankle playing basketball this morning, ping pong, and girls in purple.

The Cottle's

The Hansen's

Pre-Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving Eve festivities are in full swing.  Ben reminded of our annual turkey donation to the Utah Food Bank.  I usually have our donation ready and delivered weeks in advance, not this year.  The workers seemed extremely busy today.  Not surprising since it is the day before Thanksgiving.  I hope there is not a person out there that goes without all the fixings this year.

Lizzy has become the master mind behind Grandma Brown's famous molasses turkey cookies. There are some traditions that the kids love to continue, and this is definitely one of them.  Meg and I helped her with them, but she followed through to the end.

This year, we will be spending Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Brown's.  With 32 expected guests, my food assignment is mashed potatoes.  Kate was kind enough to peel and cut a 20 lb bag of potatoes for me.  They are mashed and ready for the Thanksgiving feast!

Thanksgiving Day.....here we come!

The delivery crew.

Up close and personal....with the turkey cookie.

Lots of Turkey Cookies, and the cute girl that made them.

My Thanksgiving Day assignment.