Alan and Lois Brown Family: November 2013

Friday, November 29, 2013

Sunday's with the kids!!

Love having the kids over on Sunday Afternoons!! We love playing games and we love playing with Charlotte!!

Our little Cupcake!!

Allison took pictures of Charlotte in her costume for Halloween where you can see the whole costume! Our little cupcake! So cute!!

Saturday we had respite care all day so Alan and I got to spend the whole day together!! We started out by going to Barnes and Noble, where I got some great buys for Christmas, then we went to 2 movies, yes, that is right 2!!! We haven't done that in forever!! We saw "Ender's Game" even though I had seen it Alan hadn't and I really enjoyed seeing it a 2nd time!! Then we went to "Catching Fire" which Alan has been so excited to see and couldn't believe that he didn't get to go Opening night because Yency and I were making pictures (see last post)! It was AWESOME!! I have never seen books turned into movies so well!!

Then Alan, with my Dad, went to Chris' (my step brother) football game. He is one of the High School coaches and their team is in the State Playoffs!! Alan said it was a great game and a great time! They won! So there will be more games coming up! I stayed home with Aileen and worked on the Christmas Stocking I am making as a service project for Sis. Betty Willden. I think its turning out really cute!!

My afternoons with Charlotte

This last week, my afternoons were cut short and I have to tell you, that never makes me happy, but I'm always happy that I can spend whatever time I can with Charlotte and Allison!!!

Wednesday afternoon I had to run, (getting ready for the Thanksgiving Day 5K) then I had a work meeting for my 2nd job, for packagers at Digi-Clean so Wednesday did not happen at all....Boo!!

But Friday even though I had to run first and deliver a job to Digi-Clean I was able to get to Allison's in time for us to go shopping!! We loved going to the stores looking for fun things to take to our Visiting Teacher ladies!! And we found some great deals!! And Charlotte looked great in her baby gap shirt and her hat that Grandma Rex sent her!!

We normally stay and either go to John's game or play games with Allison until John gets home, but I had been asked by Sis. Willden to help her teach our church ladies how to make the tile picture boards that I taught her to make long time ago!! So I thought this might be a fun thing to invite Yency, our respite care giver to, if she wanted to come and participate.....kind of a missionary kind of thing to continue what Aileen has started with her missionary experiences with Yency!! She did come and it was an awesome experience!!

Book Club

The last 2 months, I have missed book club and was very sad, because I really do love reading the books and then discussing them with my friends. The two that I missed were "Jefferson's Sons", about Thomas Jefferson and his slave children, a historic fiction teen novel, and the "To Kill a Mocking Bird" a Classic. I enjoyed reading both and really wanted to hear the discussion on both!

This month's book was "The Light Between Two Oceans" I wondered if I would enjoy the book at certain points of the book, but in the end I loved it and felt it had many lessons that correspond with gospel principals and the atonement!

It was a good read! Thanks Karin Haven's for choosing it!!

Saturday and Sunday.....

Saturday morning we had a shower for one of the ladies in your Ward, Sis. Tracy! She has 4 boys and is finally getting a girl. They really did not think they were going to have any more so they had given all their baby stuff and away and didn't have anything.... The women in our Ward are amazing and found used, but in perfect condition, a stroller, swing, and car seat, as well as a crib and changing table....we all went together for the group gift and when she opened the card there was still cash inside! I love our Ward and they way that we care for each other!! I really do! The sister is from Mexico, and some of her Hispanic friends who came followed the tradition of pinning little baby tokens to the mother which is what she is wearing in the picture. I told her if we had known about the tradition we would have all brought something!! Fun to learn, and good to remember, maybe!!

Later that afternoon, Allison, John, and Charlotte came over! Allison had a photo shoot and needed someone to watch Charlotte for her while she did that and Alan and John needed to watch the BYU football game!! It was fun to watch Allison in action from afar and Charlotte and I had a great time at the park!

Then we headed home to my house where Alan and John had started the grill, for grilling chicken and vegetables for dinner.

Allison sent me pictures of Charlotte in one of the new dresses we bought her that she wore to church that day! She looks so cute! I just can't get enough of this little girl!!

Sunday, the kids came over to play games Sunday afternoon which we are always excited about and while playing Canasta, to keep Charlotte entertained, John gave her his wallet.....I think Daddy better watch out!! She's learning pretty young and fast what's in Dad's wallet!!

We went to the Symphony!!

Friday, November 15, 2013 we went to the Symphony!! The Malone's, friends of ours, have season tickets and when they can't go for one reason or another, they are kind enough to think of us and we we get to go!!

This time was because their daughter just had a new baby girl and they were helping with the new baby!

Friday nights because of respite care, we get to go out on dates....sometimes we spend it with Allison so that she is not alone, sometimes we go to the movie, but sometimes on very special occasions like today we get to go to the Symphony at Bass Hall!

We went downtown (which I always enjoy being Downtown Ft. Worth in Sundance Square) and parked, then walked to the Barnes and Nobles across from Bass Hall, and had a delicious dinner from the Deli there. I also found some great deals 75% off of Halloween stuff.

Then when closer to time we crossed the street to Bass Hall and got ready for the symphony! They had a guest conductor and a solo pianist. Both were young and a lot of fun to watch! The Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major was wonderful the Andante almost made me cry it was so beautiful!! The Conductor was 24 and they say really making a name for himself and in great demand now, and I can see why it was really fun to watch him conduct the Legeti he was so playful with the music.

It was fun to get to go! It was a very nice evening!!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Sunday, what a treat!!

This weekend was our Stake Conference, and it really was amazing...the Saturday night Adult Session and the Sunday morning Session - both were awesome and I really felt spiritually rejuvenated and motivated to be a more loving person!! The talks all around were really good and I'm so grateful I was there to feel of and partake of the spirit!

Then Sunday evening since the Thompson's were not able to come to Salt Grass with us last Saturday, they invited us over to Celebrate Alan's birthday by Caitlin making us dinner!! I'm not going to lie, I knew it was going to be all from scratch and that it was going to be fabulous...so I had been looking forward to it all week long! And she did not disappoint!!

She made real Lasagna, like they make in Italy, homemade bread with real butter, yummy spinach, cranberry, avocado, and poppy seed dressing salad, and homemade (her grandmother's recipe) German Chocolate Cake!! Wowzer!! It was amazing! So glad I got invited too! And Aileen thought she had died and gone to heaven! Alan talked about the dinner for the rest of the evening!! And he wondered how Caitlin knew that German Chocolate Cake was his favorite! You rock Caitlin!! And we love your family and will miss you all so much when you move for Jared's residency! But we feel so blessed to have had you in Texas for as long as we have and to get to know the wonderful people that you are and we appreciated your friendship so much!!

Happy Birthday Alan!! You are one lucky guy!!

The Thompson family

The table looked beautiful and the food even better!!

Last home game for the season.....

Friday night was BHS last home game of the season! They have made it into the play-off's. That's good and bad news....its good that the team did that good, bad because it just means more games for John to have to work at over the Holiday's but that's expected and comes with the job!!

We all bundled up and went to watch John on the sidelines and see the last home game of the season! Burleson High School Elks won! It was an exciting game against their rivals the Burleson Centennial High School Spartans (I think). Charlotte was sporting her Red and Black bow! Those are the official colors of BHS!! We had a great time and Charlotte helped grandpa drive to the game.....not really j/k!!

Baby its cold outside.....

For Texas it has gotten really cold outside! Allison noticed that Charlotte has outgrown a lot of her clothes and that she does not have very many long sleeved, fall things to wear...

Yay! We get to go shopping!! It was great fun and since it was Veteran's Day Weekend there were great sales! We went to Gymboree (my personal favorite), Baby Gap, Disney Store (I got some Christmas there), Then we hit Target for basic everyday onsies and matching leggings.

She needs white tights and we forgot to get those, and she already has a beautiful white sweater to go over the Green Christmas dress. But the rest is new, new, new! It was great fun!!

Empty Nester FHE - Fa la la la la, la la la!!

It's always challenging to have FHE of some kind when its just the two of you....granted we have Aileen but she is happy doing whatever we do and is really not demanding in this area. And since our other kids are all grown and moved out, we had started having FHE emails...but even that has stopped after the first couple of years. We've been kind of lazy and have been using watching "Dancing with the Stars" together as our FHE activity. But last Monday, Yensy Willden and Laura Brackney decided that some of us empty nester needed to get together for FHE and have Scott play his guitar and let us sing Christmas Carols!! I know its only the first week of November....but hey, it was great fun and it really helped me to start getting in the mood for the Holidays!! Fa la la la la, la la la!

Shelley Frohm...oh, how I have missed her!!

Sunday night after the kids left to put Charlotte to bed, I headed to Colleyville, TX, to see my dear friend Shelley Frohm, who I lived by in Murry Utah. She came to Texas to visit her Doctor Son and his family because one of her grandson's was getting Baptised!!

It was like we had never been apart and surely not appart for 20 yrs! We just picked up where we left off and got caught up on some of the things that you don't share in Christmas letters and Facebook!! But oh, I was so happy to see her and be with her again....there are a lot of excellent memories associated with her, her husband Clint, and her family!!

So great to see you again Shelley! Love you!!

Alan turns 58!!! Oh, Wow, not sure how I feel about this.....

Alan is only a couple of years away from 60! I can hardly believe it!! Wow, I'm not sure how I feel about this! But we did have a fun time celebrating his birthday and it was a whole weekend celebration!

Friday night date night - over at Allison's playing with Charlotte...