Birthdays

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRADEN!!!

The first week of March we celebrated Braden's Birthday! He is now the big 25!! It was a MUCH better birthday than last year, no ambulances or hospital visits, which I am so very glad of! On his birthday we went to dinner with both of our parents and Colton, it was pretty fun! He got a rice cooker from my parents; I swear he would eat rice everyday if I'd let him. His parents gave him a dutch oven, and he chose to get decoys from me (actually he bought them and I told him that was his birthday). Then that Sunday Grandma Smith made his choice of dinner which consisted of a wonderful roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, and sticky pull-a-parts. Then we had cake and ice cream. Since I got my cake decorating set for my birthday, I have been playing with it a little bit and was able to come up with this...

I was trying to have it be a surprise but wasn't able to get it quite finished before Braden walked in, so he helped me with the placement of the figures and also helped make the cat tails. It wasn't as great as I wanted it to be, but I guess it was okay for my first one.


Braden is the most amazing, wonderfulest husband, and I am so lucky to be married to him!! After such an awful, and scary birthday last year, I realize how important it is to make everyday count! I am so grateful for Braden and the chance I have to spend every day with him! Thanks babe for everything that you do for me, and for working so hard at work and school for us! I hope you had a Happy Birthday!
I LOVE YOU!!!!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA! WE MISS YOU!!

The 13th was Grandpa's Birthday and we decided to Celebrate it even though he wasn't here with us this year. Me, the sisters, Gram, my mom and Janetta all went to lunch at Maddox. We all knew that Grandpa wouldn't have approved, he would have preferred Hog Heaven aka Chuck-a-Rama, but we went there anyways and really enjoyed ourselves.

There were enough of us that we didn't all fit in one picture so here's a couple of the afternoon.

After lunch a few of us went with Gram to visit Gramps grave, I actually did pretty well that day, but I'm having a heck of a time right now... I miss him SOO MUCH!! I think of him almost every day, and the influence he had on my life. I could not have asked for a better Grandpa. He always let us know how much he loved us and what he expected of us. I miss hearing his silly songs, lame jokes, baaaing like a lamb, and most of all his hugs and kisses! We all love and miss you Grandpa, Happy Birthday!

RODEO!

On Saturday we went to the rodeo with Katie, Ryan and Lucy. We had a great time, and cute little Lucy wanted to sit by me and Braden! She wasn't quite sure what to think of the cowboys falling off those horses, but she definetley got excited when she saw Abby, Pocono, and Doc. (horses that she believed to be hers because they looked similar) She also is a people watcher, which I found very amusing. We were already having a great time when Ryan brought back a cotton candy it turned into a FANTASTIC time! At first she wasn't sure what to think, but she decided that it was delicious, whether she needed my convincing or not, I tried my best.
Thanks for coming with us Brown's!

Yummy!

So I'm a little behind on my blogging, but here's just a start....

For Grandma Smith's Birthday I volunteered to make cupcakes. The night before Braden and I went to the rodeo with Jenilyn, Megan, and Mitch. After we had to make a quick stop at Wal-mart for cake mix because I had burnt my first batch of cupcakes earlier that day. Then we came back to our house and hung out. Jenilyn and Megan wanted to help me decorate the cupcakes and I'm glad they did because it would have taken me forever by myself! However, notice the clock (1:30am), it took us forever anyways. This was definatley one of mine and Braden's later nights! But it sure was fun and I thought the cupcakes turned out really cute!!

I loved the idea of the little ladybugs.

This isn't a very good picture because I had to steal it off my father-in-laws blog, but this is what they looked like in the cupcake stand.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!! Thanks for everything you do for us, and the great example you are! WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Valentine Cookies!!!

In Febuary I made Valentine sugar cookies and invited the kids over to decorate them. This time we had a full house but it was TONS of fun!! Thanks sisters and 'other' sisters for letting me play with your kids, they are all so Cute and I completely enjoy them!

Ali, Karla, Jane, Gram(back), Maren, Dean, Lucy

Brody, Laney, Brit, Ali

Jane and Justin keep telling me we need to make cookies agian... TOMORROW!! I keep telling them we will have to make up some Holidays so we can.
Jessica, Jane, Becki, Justin

SoMe of the finished cookies....

This little stinker is so darn cute and can't get enough cleaning done! He loves to vacuum so as soon as he found my little cordless one, he was in Heaven!

Karla and Jane brought their Dr. kit so we had to take turns giving each other shots and listening to our hearts.

I need help!

I am not creative, crafty, or imaginative, so I am recruiting some help... My landlord is letting me paint; actually, having a painter come paint for me. But I don't know what to have them do and he keeps saying it is up to me as long as its not pink. So with dark green carpet and wood paneling on the bottom half of the wall, I was sure I wanted to go with a light off-white color. Now after talking to the painter, he says the painter might give me the option of painting the paneling? I've tried, and don't even know how to find good examples online and I sure don't have any ideas of my own. So regardless of whether you think I want your help or not, if you have any ideas or helpful sites please let me know. Thanks!

CaLiForNiA

We had such a blast in California and we were so glad we decided last minute to tag along! We left Friday afternoon. We were all instructed to "pack light" so I tried my very best. However I was a little nervous when we actually had all the bags piled up ready to load, but we made it work. We drove Grandpa and Grandma's van with GB and Braden as drivers and LJ, Dena, Britney and I as passengers. We stayed in Primm the first night and had quite the night of gambling. Brit played the tables and Grandpa joined her after a little while. The rest of us would all sit around one machine and wait for free spins! Our money lasted a little bit longer that way. Then we finally got on the road Saturday around 12:30. We got to Welk Resort in Escondido, and the condo was nice, and Grandma loved to point out how clean it was, which I was impressed by. On Sunday, we sat around for quite a while, made some yummy Virginia style Butter rolls, then headed to San Diego for some Sunday activities. We visited the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, which had barley re-opened from renovation the day before. Then we walked around Old Town and ended our night by dropping by the temple. The gates were locked, but Braden still got some beautiful pictures.

Making little, tiny, yummy butter rolls!
Half are made with white sugar, the other brown.

Grandpa trying on Battalion soldier gear

Old Town

Braden and Brit mining for Gold

Monday we woke up and went to SEA WORLD!!! I had never been until I was 19 while we were in Orlando and I absolutely fell in love with it! As much as I hate water, I am very impressed with Sea World and really enjoy all the animals and shows.

My first Churo, Ever! Not that impressive.

Sea lion show

Grandpa bought us some food so we could feed the Bat Rays and it was pretty cool, although I got nervous at the last minute and just dropped mine, but I still pet them.

These are Beluga Whales, the reason they were so exciting was because I didn't know what a Beluga was. When I was little and Katie and Karla went to Alaska, they came back singing this song about 'Baby Beluga....' I still to this day sing that song and get it stuck in my head but I guess it never really occurred to me that I didn't know was a beluga was until I saw the sign explaining what these were and I got so excited!

Baby beluga in the deep blue sea, you swim so wild, and you swim so free.....


I am happy to admit that I took this picture. I usually leave the picture taking up to Braden since it is his camera and too complicated for me to use. If you look close you can see Grandpa in the background. I'd like to say I knew he was there, but I had no idea. But it is a good pic don't ya think?

SHAMU!! I think my very favorite part of sea world is the killer whale show, I could watch it all day! It was actually kinda cool, cause we walked over to just see the whales in their tanks and found that the trainers were practicing with them. So we probably stood there for about an hour just watching them practice tricks for the show and others that aren't even in the show.

And of course we have to have a duck pictures. Apparently I took some pretty good pictures of this one that Braden was excited about. He kept telling me about the blonde one then later when he was looking through the pictures he was happy to see that it is a 'Storm Wigeon.' ???

These ones are ocean ducks I think they're called surf scoters? They kind of have a nasty beak but are interesting looking. It was kinda cool cause they would dive under the water and come up with like mud and stuff hanging out of their beak so they had like been down to the bottom of the ocean, weird.

This is the famous "Anthony's" every time Braden's family goes to CA they have to eat here. It is a sea food place and they have outside seating where you order from a little window and sit on the deck, or inside where it is more sit down, serve you. We only ate there twice once in each place, which wasn't enough for Braden.

One of the days we slept in then went and lounged at the pool. They had a fun water slide that I even went down! We ordered pizza then Grandpa bought me this cotton candy out of the vending machine, who woulda thought?

The next day we just drove up and down the coast and hung out on the beach a little. We went to Oceanside and apparently found a new favorite Sea food place.... If you haven't figured it out, I'm not a fan of sea food. But this one was like baja style so they had a salsa bar-more of my thing. Yummy!

We also saw some kite surfers and that was pretty cool!

Dena, Brit, Gandma, Grandpa

Me and my handsome Husband!

Pelican I took a picture of....

Me and Brit pretended to be modeling, I guess I got a little bit more into it than her.

I spotted these sea lions in the harbor as we were driving around, which is unual cause I never spot or can even find stuff after people point it out to me.

One of the mornings Braden and I went fishing in the pond. It was just on the golf coarse, you could rent a pole and they gave us a hot dog as bait... pretty funny!

The last day we went to Seaport village and hung out and did a little shopping.

We had a spectacular time, and I am so glad we got to go! We had great weather, Loads of fun, and Fantastic company! Thanks Everyone for making it such a fun VACATION! And thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking us!!!!!!!