Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Mom Brown's 80th Birthday!

Saturday was Mom Brown's 80th Birthday and there was a  big celebration planned in Ogden, Utah for her.  So for Alan's birthday, which is tomorrow by the way, I got him a ticket to be able to fly out and be there with her and the family!!  Alan said it was a beautiful day and I am so glad because if there is any one that deserves to be celebrated it is Mom Brown!!  Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom with her children, L to R: Kevin, Alan, Mom, Kris
and missing Larry.

Mom with her sisters, L to R: Helen, Mom, and Ann.

The Grandchildren that were there:  L to R: Becky, AnneMarie, Stacey, Shelley, Sandi,
Laura, Sarah, Ryan, Jill.  And in front Robert.
The 2 pregnant granddaughters that were there:  Shelley Lamb and Sarah Darrington
It's Shelley's 4th and Sarah's 2nd.  Not able to make it but also
pregnant is Allison Rex with her first!
and the newest great grandchild - Oakley Haney with her mom Casey
She is only 2 wks old if that!!

my beautiful daughter AnneMarie with her cousin Stacey and her son Tucker.
AnneMarie and Stacey were only 2 wks apart and all their lives growing up we have
pictures of the two of them together!!

 
MaryAnn put together a slide show on Mom's life.  Joy had everyone in the family make a scrapbook page then put them together in a book as a gift for Mom.

I know that an added bonus for Alan was that he was able to spend time with Anne Marie for some father/daughter time!!  He came home full of news and happy to have been able to spend time with his family!!

Halloween Caroling for Visiting Teaching

Since this month is Halloween and we wanted to do something fun for the sisters (ladies/friends) that we visit teach we decided to take some candy and go caroling to their homes!!  The reaction was fun....especially Vera who thought we had lost our mind, it was funny!!

The goody bags I made for us to deliver!!
We sang Halloween Carols to Anita and Mary

Lacy and her daughter Katara

Vera, who really gave us a strange look while we sang until we all
started busting up laughing!!

And Becky who even her husband and sons came and listened as we sang!!
We had a blast!!

RS Talent Dinner

For several months our RS has been helping us define and celebrate our individual talents.  We had a workshop several months ago.  Then a month of writing notes to each other stating what we say in each other as their talents.  Then a dinner was hosted by the RS President for husbands and wives to come and display some of our talents, enjoy a dinner and musical numbers.  Barbara our RS President did not want any of the sisters to have to do anything that night except enjoy so she did all the cooking, she brought musical talent from outside our ward, who just happened to by my sister, Elizabeth, so that was awesome and a complete surprise when I saw her at the dinner.  Then we were all given letters that our husbands had written for each of us (I can only imagine the work that went into getting all those gathered) telling us about the talents they see in us or if the sister was single the letter was from their Home Teacher.  We also were given a quote from Pres. Hinkley about talents framed and a bag a candy.  Plus it was fun to walk around the cultural hall and see what everyone brought to display.

Alan wrote letters to both Aileen and I and I gotta say it was very cool to read them and realize once again the love that he has for all of his "girls".  A bonus for me is that Dad wrote me a letter too!  Not going to lie it was kind of nice to hear what my Dad thought of me as a grown woman.


Aileen and Mom at the RS Dinner

Aileen's display of her talent/hobbies - Special Olympics, Temple open houses, and Disney movies.

I displayed my Christmas socks that I make, a quilt I've made, my personal history, and some samples of the scrap booking I do online now.


Here we are with Dad having fun!

Elizabeth singing about us being daughters of God.

Barbara, RS President, talking to us about our gifts and talents.

BONUS:  Since Elizabeth was coming and my nephews were staying with her.....I was so excited when I unexpectedly saw them when we first walked into the dinner!!  That was an awesome surprise!!
 
It was a very neat evening.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Thoughtful Home Teacher + Chili = HAPPINESS!!

Last month Alan was a little disappointed that we were going to miss our Church's Chili Cook off that they have every year.  However, he was a little less sad when he found out that James Williams was not going to be making his famous Venison Chili.  His Chili until this year, when he didn't enter the contest, has won every year that we have been here in Fort Worth!

Thursday night James Williams, who just happens to be our Home Teacher, called and asked if we were going to be home for a little while and we said yes, thinking he was trying to set up an appointment to come see us.....but it was not just any visit.......he had made his Chili and brought some to us to enjoy!!  I'm not kidding, it was so good, Alan shed a tear, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven!! 

The only bad thing.....it's gone!!

Thanks James for thinking of us and being such a great Home Teacher!!

I've seen a couple of movies.....

Anyone who knows me knows my favorite thing to do is go to the movies.  Last week I went to two and neither one was a disappointment!!  Sometimes Kevin James movies look like they are going to be funny like "Zoo Keeper" and then I don't think it is because I don't like stupid funny that's not funny to me, or gross funny, same, not funny to me and then other times it totally lives up to the hype and I'm thrilled.

His new movie "Here Comes the Boom" totally lives up to the hype and previews and the audience and I end up cheering and shouting out loud at the movie....it was great!!  But I especially love that he is doing it to save the music program at the high school!!  Can't help but support that!!

                                                               Photo by IMDb

Then Friday night I went to the new "Alex Cross" movie made from the James Patterson books and it was very action packed.  And even though I am not a Tyler Perry fan, I did like him in this movie.  Now that I know that its good and that Alan will enjoy it hopefully we can go on a date to see it together, because it is one I wouldn't mind seeing again.

photo by IMDb

Monday, October 15, 2012

Allison's 24th Birthday!!

And that is how old my baby is....I still can't adjust to the fact that my oldest is 32!  I am getting up there I guess....but I don't feel very old, does that count?  Anyway, we celebrated Allison's birthday in Tyler as John's mother, Marianne, had come to visit for the week.

They had a great time getting pedicures, shopping, going to John's football game, a special garage sale, watched movies, watched the BYU football game, and just enjoyed each others company!!  Too fun.  Then we came up  to Tyler and Allison fixed us the best dinner....Alan is still commenting on how good Allison's dinner was, he's not proud or anything, lol!!  But it WAS delish!!  We brought her Birthday cake and flowers and had fun ourselves, catching up with Marianne, and as always enjoy being around John's family!!

Allison is such a joy, and the light of my life, and I am proud of her every minute!! Happy Birthday sweetie!!

Allison and Marianne - The Rex girls!! (including baby)

Alan & John watching the game and visiting

Allison showing me the spoils of her victory over the garage sale as told about in previous post!

The outfit that my Mom bought, that now baby girl Rex will get to wear - see story here, priceless blessing!!

The mound of baby clothes, and there is another pile of dresses that is not shown here!!
 
Funny story - love this picture better than the next one...and when John was taking it he said "The sun is shining right across your faces, and we moved a little but not really....so he took it anyway kind of laughing at us that we didn't get what he was saying.  And as you know the 1st picture is always better then the second.......

...but I'll be happy with the second one as you can actually see all of us!!
L to R: Aileen, Lois, Allison, and Marianne.

look how cute baby bump is..... 5 1/2 months I think!

Happy Birthday Sweetie - flowers, card, & money with her Favorite cake - red velvet, with Bluebell ice cream - what's not to love!!


Saturday, October 13, 2012

Life is good.....

It really is!!

Last weekend was General Conference for our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where we get to listen to Apostles and our Prophet speak to us.  And it was a great weekend!  Wonderful talks!  But I'm not going to lie the best part was that Allison and John came and spent the weekend with us.  It's the first time that Alan had a son to take to the Priesthood session, I know that meant a great deal to Alan, but they also met up with my Father, so it was a Grandfather, Dad, and Son all in the Priesthood session together and then they went to Grandpa's for ice cream afterwards!!

Alan had to work Saturday, he has never had to work Saturday before, but its getting to be that time of year (retail wise) and he was scheduled for this particular Saturday.  We didn't even think about it because it had never happened before, but now we know if we have something big going on....Alan is going to need to check the store's schedule and make them aware that he can't be there that day.  But because Alan had to work and didn't get to watch Saturday's conference sessions with us Allison, Aileen, John and I all met up with Alan right when he got off work and went to Chili's for dinner so they could be done in time to get to Priesthood!!

Allison and I went home and tried to figure out why my Maytag that I bought January 2011 won't spin.....yes very frustrating!!  We were able to get it to work enough that she could at least get her wash done that she brought to do while they were here visiting.  We watched a DVD waiting for the boys and then you know what we did if you know us at all.....We all played cards.

Sunday we watched General Conference and in between sessions Dad and Barbara came for dinner so we were all able to visit and grandparents got to see Allison and John while they were here.  I thought when the last session of conference was done they would need to head back to Tyler.....but to my surprise and utter delight, they said they were staying over because Monday was Columbus Day holiday and John's school was closed!!  We got to have them a little longer - Fabulous!! 

We missed Anne Marie like crazy and wish so badly that she lived closer because then it really would have been the perfect weekend.

This week, more crazy things have been happening, our air conditioner in our new car stopped working.....my kindle broke and cannot be fixed.  And I worried that I had killed my new laptop, luckily not....but you can see where I might be a little stressed and the worse is that I have some big time Dental work that needs to be taken care off right away, because I have been walking around in the most severe pain I have ever felt in my life in my mouth.  It feels like my jaw is constantly throbbing which in turn has made me have a constant headache.....and just a little on edge.....you think???  But I'm having to wait for payday and even then scared to death of how much its going to cost, because even though Alan is working again we still haven't qualified for insurance at this time!!

But on the positive side....I have been working on my granddaughter's Christmas sock!  And it is turning out so beautiful!!

Allison's 24th birthday was Friday!!  I can't believe my baby girl is that old and having her own baby....but she is!!  Marianne Rex, John's mom came to spend the week with them and celebrate Allison's birthday which I think is wonderful and as I have heard from Allison a couple of times and of course I called her on her birthday - they are having a great time and visit!!

On Friday, my sister, Elizabeth had a friend "T" that she use to work with (so did Alan and Dad) that had a baby girl at the same time of year season-wise that Allison will be having her baby and as the baby is now 4 and she has not had any more babies, she decided to have a Garage sale of baby stuff, so Marianne and Allison drove to Rowlett to Elizabeth's and then they all went to McKinney to this persons home to check out the stuff and I guess it was like going to an up scale baby store.  So many cute, cute outfits and Marianne was heard to comment that they couldn't be used baby clothes because they looked too brand new.....and Allison got a  baby swing that swings both ways -- I really could put in a funny joke right here but I won't.  But I guess it swings front and back or side to side and I guess if you are unlucky enough that your baby has acid reflux, you will be grateful to have the swing that can swing side to side!!  (Marianne told Allison that all her babies had acid reflux, I think that was what sold her on it lol!!)

But the really neat story about this trip, is that when "T" had her baby, my Mom gave "T" the cutest baby outfit as a gift and when Allison came to the Garage sale, she had it all saved out and told her that Allison's Grandmother had given her this beautiful outfit for her baby and that it meant so much to her that her Grandma would do that, and that she wanted Allison to have it, so that her baby would have an outfit to wear that her Great Grandma had picked out.....well, you can imagine that Allison started crying, and it was a very special moment.  Allison, told her Dad and myself about it as did Elizabeth call and tell me this story as well - so it was important to everyone I think, that Allison's baby will have something my mom picked out even though she is no longer with us!!

We are headed to Tyler to see Allison for her birthday and to get to see Marianne before she has to leave so I cannot wait to see all the loot!!

Monday, October 1, 2012

In case you didn't know....My husband is amazing!!

Photo by: Allison Rex Photography
Really, I can't believe everyone doesn't already know this....but my husband is amazing.  To make a short story long, lol, as you probably know my computer crashed and burned and we had to decide what type of computer we were going to get, laptop, desktop, etc... we finally decided to get a laptop with a docking station and use it as a desktop computer when at home, but if and when needed I can take my laptop places as well.  Finally we got the docking station we ordered and Alan got it all set up for me over the weekend and after he had the printer hooked up to the docking station he wanted to make sure it worked correctly so he did a test page and this is what he typed on his test page...."Lois Brown is beautiful".  Ohhhh, melt my heart.  And the reason I saw it is because after he tested it and found out that everything was hooked up and worked correctly, he forgot to throw it away.....so a few days later I find this little note and it makes me smile!  He is a great guy!  And of course only he would think I was beautiful....but I'm so grateful that he does!!