awwwwww

I love the feeling of a new year. I love a new start and change. Today has been a gorgeous day. It snowed for the most part, Tuesday and Wednesday so today is blanketed in snow and the skies are blue. I wish i could have gone snow shoeing but I didn't want to take the chitlins and didn't have a babysitter. So I enjoyed it the best I could by looking out the window often :)
On this blog I read, she chooses a word for the year. For this year, she chose GROW. So I don't look like a copy cat (because I like that word), my word for the new year seems to be change. I'd like to change to a bigger house, change my waistline to a smaller size (although I'm not making ANY goals that have to do with weight loss), change the way I save and spend money, change my prayer and scripture reading habits including family (it has become so hit and miss during the week with our family prayer and scriptures), change my hair color, change the way "I" run Ryan's business. Just to name a few for starters. And when I write it down on something as public as my blog, I tend to stick to it. But because I enjoy change and I also enjoy setting goals, I've already started some of these changes because I just couldn't wait for tomorrow. We've moved to a larger home. huh, j/k. I'm thinking maybe a reflections post on the last year??

A merry time on Christmas

I love Christmas. I love waking up and seeing the kids excitement, watching them open presents and they get even more excited, hanging out in pj's all day, the kids playing nicely with all of their new toys and just doing nothing.

For Christmas eve, we went to Ryan's parents house and did our usual, dinner, "program" then swapping presents. On our way to SLC, the sunset was gorgeous

I was pretty lucky this year and got some good gifts, this being one of my favorites!


darn, we missed the big fat man, but here's what it looked like after he left.



We take turns opening presents, to make Christmas last longer.


Charlotte kept finding the chocolate from everyone's stockings. While we were busy ooohing and awwing over each others gifts, she was stuffing her mouth.


This was Charlotte's "big" present, I knew she would like it :)




One of our family traditions is to open jammies on Christmas eve. That's why they are so coordinating. I know, you thought we always dressed like we were straight out of a land's end magazine.



Brody with his stuff





My mom made all the grandkids these cute super hero capes. We were just checking out how well Charlotte's worked.

Christmas recital

I enjoy going to kids piano recitals because it is so cute to see them concentrating and almost all of them mess up. Its' quite possible that only 3 or 4 kids out of 15, played their songs right. But that is what makes it cute, seeing them learn and grow as they are developing a new talent. Brody started lessons in October and Cloe has been playing for a year.

the foolish man built his house with frosting

building gingerbread houses, fun tradition right? Not this year my friends, I was so irritated. Okay, a bit of exhaustion (it's saturday and I always stay up too late on Friday night) and frustration, I was more pissed than irritated. I looked up the recipe for Royal frosting and I thought it would also be fun to make a house out of rice crispy treat. The frosting never really hardened and I didn't spray the baking pan with Pam so the walls of crispy treat were stuck. (I had to bake them to harden them up) After Brodys house crumbled I ran to wal mart and bought a kit for $7. The roof keeps sliding off. Maybe my house is too humid. This is not the year. No Christmas miracles on ginger lane.



Abbey was upset that Brody got a real house and hers was now a garage because the pitched roof kept falling.

our e-card ??? wishing our blog viewers a wonderful Christmas season!

The Brown’s 2009 top 9 – Because we couldn’t come up with 10

9. Ryan’s private art school, the Center for Academic Study & Naturalist Painting (CAS), continues to be successful.

8. We spent the 4th of July in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. A gorgeous place and a lot of fun for our family.

7. Cloe started 2nd grade and enjoys reading, Brody started 1st and loves recess (and girls a little too much) Abbey is in pre school and likes going on field trips.

6. Ryan curated and participated in the “Hudson River Revival” exhibition at the Springville Museum. He and other artists spent 2 summers painting in Hunter, New York in preparation for this show. Ryan spent another 7 months completing the large painting.

5. I (Courtney) finished 2 triathlons and 6 other running races this year and am addicted to beating my own time.

4. Cloe ran her first 5k!

3. Brody competed in the “muttin bustin” in the Rodeo on his birthday. He stayed on the sheep for 10 seconds and thought it was so cool.

2. I had the pleasure of coaching Cloe’s softball team this year. She dominated in soccer and continues to play the piano. Brody played t-ball and soccer but sat 2 weeks of the season due to his 3rd broken clavicle! He also just started piano lessons. Abbey played her first year of soccer and was so fun to watch. She makes cute faces when she plays.

1. Charlotte turned one November 5th. She is so fun and such a sweetie. She also recently turned into a biped and it is fun to watch her wobble around.

We have been blessed this year in so many different ways. We are grateful to be celebrating this time of year with family and wish you all a Merry Christmas and an even better 2010!!

we had a great Thanksgiving and started it out right with a Turkey Trot. I did the 4 mile race with some friends from CA and then Ryan broght the kids to run the kids race.

Cloe was sick with a chest cold and started the race out too fast. She felt sick to her stomach so I walked with her to make sure she finished the race. I'm not raising any quitters ;)



Brody checking out his shadow. He got 2nd in his age group




The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to watch the Christmas parade in Spanish Fork. It was fun because they turned off all the lights on main street and all the floats were lit up with lights. The kids loved it especially Brody, he told me to look at every float because he thought they were so cool.







We also went to Provo's lights on where Santa turned the lights on. No photos because it was freezing and we lost Abbey. We finally found her sitting on the grass in the crowd, watching Santa and counting down for the magical lights on.


Saturday, we did family pictures with Ryan's family up in Salt Lake and then went and saw the lights at Temple Square. I loved it! All the
trees covered in lights and there was a small blanket of snow on the ground. It felt so Christmasy and festive.