Allison and John

Even though we missed having John around while he was with the BYU football team, it was nice to have some 'one on one' time with Allison. What was also really nice for Allison, is this gave her time that she could set up some photo shoots while she was in town without feeling guilty!!




Thursday night John was able to get away for a few hours and go to dinner with us and he chose to go to "Buffalo Wild Wings". It's one of his favorite places that they don't have in Utah, although there are rumors that one is going to be built soon in Salt Lake.

Friday night after the "Armed Forces Bowl" game, Grandpa and Barbara, Logan, Steve, and all of us were together for Cousin's BBQ and for the opening of Christmas presents. Yes, we celebrated late this year!!




Cousin's (Allison and Logan) enjoying each other's company!!


Alan & I were just happy the whole time they were here!!



On the way out of town, to the airport, we stopped at Grandma Clay's grave site and added some flowers so that she knows she is never forgotten!!



The Christmas sweater I have on in this photo was my Mom's. Nice memories!!

It wouldn't be the Holiday's if I didn't see a few movies!!

The first movie I saw over the holiday's was with two of my friends, Mary Ann Stephens and Becky Wangler - "New Years Eve". I really enjoyed it. I don't think it was a good as "Valentines Day" done by the same Director, Garry Marshall, but it was good and had a few surprises!!


The second movie I saw on a date with my husband right before Christmas, the new Mission Impossible movie!! I really enjoyed this and so did Alan. He really liked that it was less about the romance and more about the action then the previous MI's. While Allison was with us and John was with the team, one evening she went and met John Downtown and went to see this movie with him and all the other trainers for BYU!!


The 3rd movie I saw was today, the New Year's Day official holiday day. We saw "We Bought A Zoo" it was Fabulous!! I really cannot begin to tell you how good it was. Matt Damon was fantastic, and the actors who played his Children were amazing and it was a great, great movie that Alan and I both loved!!

Christmas Surprises!!

We did have some fun Christmas Surprises!! Besides Alan getting to go to the Armed Forces Bowl, I got a new camera!! I have been without a camera for quite awhile now. And everyone seemed content for me not to be able to really be able to take pictures other then crappy cell phone pictures if I really wanted one. But on Christmas Eve, my husband admitted that it just was not the same without the Camera Nazi (my nickname)!!

As you can guess, my sweet husband got me a new camera for Christmas with Allison's help, hence the much nicer pictures on my blog now!! I was really surprised because right before Christmas our printer quit working, and for my job at the Doctor's office, I type his chart notes and need to be able to print them out. So, I said, "happy Christmas to me!" and bought a new one! I assumed that was my gift, but my husband the sweet man that he is got me my new camera anyway!!

The other surprises came from our Children, Anne Marie got me a new Santa for my Santa collection from our favorite artist, Jim Shore. A Russian Santa. And Allison and John gave me a new mug, and when I say mug, I mean MUG!!! Also, all 3 gave Alan a "Y" football with all the team's autographs on it. Alan was thrilled!! And my Dad almost fell off his chair laughing at how huge my mug was!! It's awesome!!

Christmas for my kids in Utah

In December the Browns had a family dinner at Grandma Brown's home where every family had some or all of their family there to Celebrate Christmas. This picture is of John, Allison, baby Tucker (Stacey's new baby) and Anne Marie. They had a great time and I'm so glad that they were able to go and represent our family!! This truly is one of the reasons I miss living in Utah, the family get together's, showers, baby blessings, baptism, weddings etc... We try to go to as many as we can, but we miss a lot.

Then the Utah kids (John, Allison, and Anne Marie) had the traditional Clay family Christmas eve at John & Allison's. Because they could not be here, it gave me great comfort to know they were carrying on the traditions together in Utah. They called and we talked on speaker phone so that we could all be together on Christmas eve for a few minutes at least! And I did send some surprises that they totally loved so it was fun to hear their reactions.

After, Anne Marie spent Christmas day with my brother, Edward and his family and Allison and John headed for Texas!! Thanks Ed and Jill for taking care of my girl!!

Bowling on New Years Eve

In order to try to have as much family get to spend time with John and Allison, once John was available we decided since Aileen loves to go bowling that that would be a fun thing for all of us to do!! My brother George bowled a 204 game, John was second highest and Steve was third. Alan would have been in the running, I'm sure, except that he helped Aileen bowl, which is always sweet to watch!! And we did have a great time laughing, cheering, and giving each other a hard time!! I no can no longer bowl, now that I have gained weight, but I gave it a go anyway!!





Then we went to Salt Grass for steaks, then home to play cards!! It was a great New Years Eve and the way that we usually spend it, with family, playing cards!! My sister, Elizabeth and her husband Art couldn't come bowling, but they did come to play games and make the best popcorn I've ever eaten!!

BYU wins the Armed Forces Bowl

This year the week between Christmas and New Years was very exciting for our family!!! John as one of the student Athletic Trainers was chosen to come with BYU to the Armed Forces Bowl!!! It was our year for Christmas this year, but because John had to come with and be with the team until after the Bowl, Allison didn't want to come until John left with the team, which just happened to be the day after Christmas!! So our celebration really started on December 26th!

For Christmas I got Alan two tickets to the Armed Forces Bowl and then my Dad added on another one so that Alan and his two nephews, one from the Brown side and one from the Clay side could attend the game with him!! Alan was in heaven!!

Logan, Alan, and Steve, all said that they really got to see John working on the sidelines and the game was a nail biter won in the last 11 seconds!! A great time was had by all!! After the game they waited for John to finish his work and be released from the team, and then they all headed to Fort Worth were we had a great family dinner of Cousin's BBQ with Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Clay.

Christmas traditions

We have a new tradition that has started in our family and it came about by my dear friend Bessie Treber! Every year Bessie and her husband go to Florida and visit Disney World and for the past few years, they always bring back a Christmas gift for Aileen of a Disney shirt!! This years has all the Disney characters on it and Aileen adored it!! Here is a picture of her the first time she got to wear it!

The other one is the Christmas Eve PJ's that everyone always gets!! When Allison and John get here I hope that we will get to take a picture of them all together in their matching PJ's!!! But its just nice knowing that they all match where ever they are celebrating Christmas!!