I Have a Confession...

Here's my confession...I HATE to fold and put away the laundry, and usually wait until it looks like this to tackle the task.
(These are REALLY embarrassing pictures!)



I don't know what it is about this chore, but I despise it! It drives me crazy to have a mountain of laundry to put away though, so you'd think that I wouldn't let it pile up like that. Anyways I have decided to really focus on getting the laundry put away as I wash it so that I don't have it ALWaYs looming in the background haunting me!


(Two hours later, and I have my beautiful bed back! P.S. I did have a few distractions, so it probably didn't really take two full hours!)


Hopefully I will do better at one of my least favorite chores! What are your least favorite chores?

Let's Give 'em Somthin' to Talk About....

This song has been in my head for a couple of days, so I thought it would be an appropriate title for this post. Except we aren't going to be talking about Love!! It is about MY love though!! We found out a little while ago that Travis will be getting deployed next year to Iraq. We've had our fair share of emotions about it, but shock wasn't really one of them. I knew when he joined that there was a good chance that he would have to be deployed at some point, he did join the military during a war after all!! But I think that I have come to a point of peace about it. It will be hard, but we will make it through. I just have to remind myself that I made it through his basic training, so I will make it through this too!!

So sometime in June he will go to Idaho for 3 weeks for some training, then he will be back here for three weeks. Then he will go to Ft. Hood, Texas for more training for a few months, and then in December of 2011 he will head to Iraq. He will be there until September of 2012. So it will be long, but it's ok.

I have faith that he will make it through his deployment safely and that we will all be together as a family again in 2012, but being apart is definitely going to be difficult. I am so grateful for him and for his love for me. He is an amazing guy and I love him so much. I am also SO thankful for the gospel and especially for the sealing power of the Priesthood. It gives me comfort that even if something happens to shorten our time here on this earth, that it is not the end. We will be together for all eternity.

So, there you have it...that is the latest BIG news in our family.

Fun in the Fall Sun!

Wheel barrow style! A couple of weeks ago we were out working in the yard, and when we finished up the kiddos got to go for a ride in the wheel barrow!! They thought it was so much fun!! Here are some cute pics of my love, and our sweet kids!


What a stud!! The kids are cute too!!




Don't ya love Parker's cheesers!!

Peek-A-Boo...

...I see you!!!


Chloee's latest "trick"!!

Halloween 2010

We had a pretty fun Halloween this year. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Chloee was not teething with a fever/throwing up, and miserable all week!! But other that that we had a good time. On Tuesday for Family Home Evening(Travis worked Monday!) we decided to carve pumpkins. It was a blast! Chloee loved the goo, and Parker wanted ears on his pumpkin!






On Friday night we went to our friends, Betsy & Clint's house for a Halloween party. It was a lot of fun. We had yummy food, and played a fun game. Travis dressed up as a ghostbuster, I went as "Bo Peep"(I don't know if anyone even knew that that was what I was going for, we left my cute little sheep home!) and Parker dressed up as Woody. I intended to take pictures, but failed to do so!!



Then Saturday night we took the kids trick-or-treating. Parker loved it!! This is the first year that he actually said "trick-or-treat"!! Chloee just enjoyed being outside, being carried the whole way as we walked from house to house. We didn't stay out too long, but got a pretty good load of goods!!





Eliza the nerd!

Cooking and Yummy Treats

Let me just say, Travis is an excellent cook!! He lived with his dad growing up, and if he wanted to eat something besides cream of mushroom soup or frozen burritos, then he had to make it himself. So, needless to say he started cooking when he was quite young (like 8 or something!) Due to his years of experience, he is just a natural in the kitchen. Half of the time he doesn't even follow a recipe, he just whips up yummy yummy things on his own. AND....he likes to cook!!

Now, lets talk about me...
My mom taught us how to make cookies and things growing up, and when we were older we had a night that we were in charge of fixing dinner. So, when Travis and I got married, I was confident enough that I would be able to feed my new little family. I knew that I was by no means a chef, but I was adequate. And I did enjoy cooking.

Well, in the 5 years that we have been married, the majority of the time I wimped out and just let Travis cook. I cooked here and there, but Travis was the real "cook" of the house. I fought with feelings of inadequacy, but also just knew that if I wasn't in the mood, that he would take care of it. He is incredible!!

The past couple of weeks I have decided to "step up to the plate" and start being the one to cook the majority of the time. With things that I feel unsure about cooking or that Travis could do WAY better, I just have him teach me. And, it has been great!! I have really enjoyed it, and have felt like I have more worth as a wife and mother.

So, now to the "yummy treats" part of the title, fall is definitely in full swing around here, and with it has brought the desire to make yummy treats. I heard a friend talking about how good her caramel apples turned out, and decided that that would be a fun treat to learn to make. So I did!! And they turned out oh so good!



I also decided to make cake pops, which turned out pretty yummy as well!!!

An Early Christmas Present!

A couple of weeks ago, Travis and I were going to go for a drive for our date night. We didn't know where we were going to go, we were just going!! Well....

We ended up at the pet store in Tooele!! We went inside to look at the cute little animals. They had bunnies, guinie pigs, hamsters, birds, and some yucky snakes and things! They also had a couple of cool tortouses that just roamed around the store! They were aWeSoMe! Anyways, we have talked about getting a guinea pig for the kids when they get older, so we paid special attention to them. We picked out our favorite one, and asked to hold it. And then......

I fell in LoVe!! He was soooo cute!!! Oh how I wanted to take him home right then!! But, we had to walk away. So sad. We got back in the car, and made it to Wal-mart, still thinking about that adorable little guinea pig! And that is when we decided to just go back and get the cute little guy!

So now we have a new member to the Brown family. His name is Gus!! And....the kids LOVE him!!!
Reasons I love Gus:

1. He is SO cute!
2. He stays in a cage which means no pet hair all over the house, AND no messes(if you know what I mean!)
3. He is quiet!
4. He is small, but not so small that he could get sucked up by a vacuum! (Travis' pet hamster got sucked up when he was a kid)
5. He doesn't bite!!
6. The kids LOVE him! I love to see them happy!

Well that pretty much sums it up!!
And now introducing Mr. Gus Brown....